The relationship between the United States and Turkey hit a new low last week
when Washington sided with Iraqi Kurds, flatly rejecting Ankaras calls to delay
a referendum planned for later this year in northern Iraqs oil-rich city of
Kirkuk. More...
"I joined the army to be a soldier in my homeland, among my people. Not to fight
for others who I have nothing to do with," said Ameen Kareem, 38, who took a
week's leave with other soldiers from his brigade in Irbil and never returned.
"I used to fight in the mountains and valleys, not in the streets." Mr.
Kareem said he knew that deserting was risky, but that he would rather be behind
bars in Kurdistan than a "soldier in Baghdad's fire." Without the language and
with his Kurdish features, he was sure that he would stand out, he said. He's a
Kurd, he said, and he has no reason to become a target in an Arab war.
More....
"There is a Turkish proverb that says, 'the dog that barks does not bite'... The
politicians are just making lots of noise, provoking each other in the search
for votes," said Dogu Ergil of Ankara University, author of books on the Kurdish
issue. "But exaggerated rhetoric that ends with no action could undermine their
credibility in the public's eyes," he said.
More....
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
well known in Turkey and abroad for having to defend his right to free
expression in court, was killed yesterday by Turkish thugs. A group of people,
gathering at the crime scene shouted slogans condemning the murder. Members of
the group, whose affiliations are unknown, shouted, "Hrants don't die," "United
against fascism," "The murderer state will pay for this," and "Long live the
fraternity of the people," reported the New Anatolian.
Mahdi Army militia said Thursday
they were under siege in their Sadr City stronghold as U.S. and Iraqi troops
killed or seized key commanders in pinpoint nighttime raids. Two commanders of
the Shiite militia said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has stopped protecting
the group under pressure from Washington and threats from Sunni Muslim Arab
governments, reported AP today.
Reuters
- The former executive director of the U.N. oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan,
has been charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection
with the program, a federal prosecutor said on Tuesday Michael Garcia, U.S.
Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement that Sevan
allegedly received about $160,000 from Ephraim Nadler on behalf of the Iraqi
government. Nadler has also been charged.
The spokesman of Southern Kurdistan's
President rejected on Friday statements made by Erdogan on Kirkuk, calling such
statements meaningless. "For sometime we have heard of meaningless statements by
some Turkish officials that implied threats, and we want to remind them of that
the Ottoman empire fell a long time ago and that Iraq is not part of Turkey".
The Kurdish statements came in response to repeated threats made by the Turkish
Prime Minster Erdogan indicating that Turkey will not sit idle if the Kurds
control the oil rich city of Kirkuk.
An Iraqi general, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to disclose details of the plan, said a mainly
Kurdish force would be sent into the Sadr City slum in northeast Baghdad,
which serves as headquarters of the Mahdi Army. The general said Kurds, who
are Sunni but not Arab, were being used against the Shiite militia because
soldiers from other Iraqi units were likely to refuse to fight fellow
Shiites. An estimated 80 percent of Iraqs army is Shiite.
More......
"We will not deploy any peshmerga forces in Baghdad. The peshmerga forces
are a special force that will only be used to protect the Kurdish region.
However, we may send troops as part of the Iraqi army to be deployed in
Baghdad only if the Iraqi parliament officially makes such a request and our
Kurdish Regional Parliament approves it," a leading official
Dr. Mahmod Osman: The
deployment of Kurdish forces in Arab areas is wrong and will create
sensitivities and accusations that Kurds are killing the Arabs. I am against
the move and there are many in the Iraqi parliament who are against it,
too.
