KurdistanObserver.com

Ankara Has Difficulty Accepting Kurdish Reality
By: Ilnur Cevik

ilnurcevik@yahoo.com  May 9, 2006

The New Anatolian

The Iraqi Kurds (Southern Kurdistan) managed to forge a joint government and formally reunite their administrations at a special ceremony on Sunday. As usual Turkey snubbed the occasion by failing to send a representative or delegation to mark the occasion.

Instead, Iran, which is a neighbor to the Iraqi Kurds like Turkey, and which also fears Kurdish secessionist movements and thus questions Kurdish independence, made a point of sending its ambassador to Erbil to attend the parliamentary ceremony where the new Cabinet, led by Nechirvan Barzani, was sworn into office.

But the Iranian envoy was not alone. The ambassadors to Iran of the major world powers including the United States (Zalmay Khalilzad), Britain, France, Russia, China and even India were present at this ceremony... But of course the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad (or any other Turkish representative) was missing. There was apparently talk that a delegation from the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party would attend the ceremony, but that didn't materialize either.

So once again, Turkey made a point by keeping away from Erbil. But we were dead wrong. The international community has already acknowledged not only the presence of a Kurdish autonomous entity in northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), but has also legalized it. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent his special representative to Sunday's ceremony. Meanwhile, the Russians have signed an agreement with the Kurdish authorities to open a consulate in Erbil. The Russians have told us they would have opened the consulate two weeks ago, but are still waiting because they haven't found a suitable building.

Meanwhile, Turkey continues to pretend the Iraqi Kurds don't exist and that there is no Kurdish Federal entity in the northern Iraq recognized by the country's constitution. Thus, after a short period when the Turkish intelligence chief visited Erbil and met with regional President Massoud Barzani and later a Kurdistan Democracy Party delegation visited Ankara and met with Turkish intelligence officials, Ankara has stopped all kinds of dialogue with the Kurds. Ankara has turned its back on the Kurds and buried its head in the sand...

Can Turkey afford this? Should Turkey afford this?

The answer is "no" on both counts. The Iraqi Kurds have started to see the Turkmen reality, as they have named former Iraqi Turkmen Front leader Vedat Arslan as the new industry minister of the region. This is the first time a Turkmen has been appointed to such an important position. Another Turkmen, Abdullatif Benderoglu, has also won a Cabinet portfolio as state minister. This is unprecedented. Can anyone understand this message in Ankara? Or should we continue to bury our heads in the sand?