IRAQ

‘Very Difficult, Very Embarrassing’

The Iraqi minister caught between the Turks and the Kurds discusses rising regional tensions—and the unexpected Syrian reaction—in the wake of a cross-border PKK raid.

By Babak Dehghanpisheh | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Oct 23, 2007 | Updated: 10:03 a.m. ET Oct 23, 2007

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Discuss

Posted By: DC VA MD @ 11/04/2007 12:40:15 AM

Comment: Turkey has approximately 80 million population and 30 million of that are the people with Kurdish origin. The country is directed by 550 house representatives and close to 200 of those have also Kurdish descent. Anybody who doesn???t believe this can check previous Turkish president, Turgut Ozal???s background in Wikipedia, who was also of partial Kurdish descent. According to Reuters news released Sun Oct 28, 2007, 12:12pm ET, 30000 people were killed since early 1980s. If a fanatic group calling themselves as a ???party??? and causing so many peoples??? death by bombing the military stations and killing the civilians including Kurdish villagers how much would you believe their ideology that saving 20 million Kurds in Turkey and giving them freedom when Kurds in Turkey can be elected even as a president? Why 2 million Kurds in Iraq are so much interested with 20 million Kurds??? rights in Turkey when more than 3 million of them are living even in Istanbul?
Posted By: ayhankara @ 10/30/2007 6:59:38 AM

Comment: hkj
Posted By: ggkid33 @ 10/29/2007 4:08:25 PM

Comment: The Kurds and Iraqi Goverment are not taking this seriously,although they will see , how serious this really is to Turkish people.When they have forgatten they were under Ottoman (turkish) rule about 600 years,if they think Turkey is not capale of doing this,they are fools...US will not be in Iraq forever,what happens then?They should hand over all of the PKK TERRORISTS ASAP,to their benefit,if they want peace in the region.Terrorist is terrorist,lets not forget that...
Posted By: ggkid33 @ 10/29/2007 4:06:31 PM

Comment: The Kurds and Iraqi Goverment are not taking this seriously,although they will see , how serious this really is to Turkish people.When they have forgatten they were under Ottoman (turkish) rule about 600 years,if they think Turkey is not capale of doing this,they are fools...US will not be in Iraq forever,what happens then?They should hand over all of the PKK TERRORISTS ASAP,to their benefit,if they want peace in the region.Terrorist is terrorist,lets not forget that...
Posted By: edizerbilir@gmail.com @ 10/28/2007 6:36:17 PM

Comment: This man is speaking as if something which is compelety weird to him is being talked at the interview. Turkish soldiers are being shot at our own homeland by the terrorists who are well nourished in north Iraq and the leader of that region namely Barzani in June was inciting Kurdish citizens in turkey to commit terrorist activities if Turkey intervene the election in Kirkuk. The interest of Americans is the Oil reserves and Kurds' are to have the all the wealth of the country by carrying out the tasks given by Americans.
However we want security.
Posted By: KDolapci @ 10/28/2007 7:56:55 AM

Comment: PKK is a terrorist organization, they are not freedom warriors, they are killers of innocent young peoples. Turkey is a part of NATO and a democratic country. USA is in wrong way, Barzani and Talabani are manservant of terrorists, and they were in Turkey's protect from Saddam, ten years ago.
Posted By: KDolapci @ 10/28/2007 7:55:18 AM

Comment: PKK is a terrorist organization, they are not freedom warriors, they are kilers of innocent young peoples. Turkey is a part of NATO and a democratic country. USA is in wrong way, Barzani and Talabani are manservant o terrorists, and they were in Turkey's protect from Saddam, ten years ago.
Posted By: jtuf @ 10/27/2007 8:02:28 AM

Comment: Turkey is part of NATO. When the PKK attacks Turkey, it is attacking NATO. Why not have NATO troops patrol the border between Turkey and Iraq?
Posted By: lovejusticepeace @ 10/27/2007 12:12:06 AM

Comment: The countries of Turkey,Syria,Iraq and Iran should get realistic and help establish the nation of Kurdisthan.
History and the march of newly established countries like Bosnia,Croatia,East Timor, etc should be considered.
The same goes for Quebec,Basque,Kosovo,Eelam,Aceh and a host of others.
- Posted By: ggkid33 @ 10/29/2007 4:23:06 PM
  
  Comment: You are an idiot my friend.You can't devide a country just because 3.500 terrorists want,Kurds in Turkey happy the way they are.Let me ask you a question,can Germany let go Berlin based on their etnicity,over 3.5million Turks live in Europe.Can US give California to Mexicans?And Florida to Cubans?You ara totally IDIOT my friend
Posted By: aturkoglu @ 10/26/2007 4:04:13 AM

Comment: Then according to Zebari, if U.S. leaves Iraq, there is no crisis between Turkey and Northern Iraq's Federal Government. What kind of a Kurdish logic is that? The basic thing is Kurds claim territories form Turkey, Iran and Syria, in order to reach their main goal of "The Great Kurdistan". Actually they simply don't pay a *** about Iraq. The only way of achieving this goal. in the mean time, is to make these countries isolated from the western world, destabilize them and grom Kurdish nationalizm between the Kurdish citizens of these countries.
Posted By: aturkoglu @ 10/26/2007 4:03:27 AM

Comment: Then according to Zebari, if U.S. leaves Iraq, there is no crisis between Turkey and Northern Iraq's Federal Government. What kind of a Kurdish logic is that? The basic thing is Kurds claim territories form Turkey, Iran and Syria, in order to reach their main goal of "The Great Kurdistan". Actually they simply don't pay a *** about Iraq. The only way of achieving this goal. in the mean time, is to make these countries isolated from the western world, destabilize them and grom Kurdish nationalizm between the Kurdish citizens of these countries.
Posted By: mehmegen @ 10/25/2007 5:10:21 PM

Comment: What the foreign minister of the government of Iraq forgets (or omits) is that the PKK are supported by the KRG itself, especially by their head, Mesud Barzani. They are not telling this of course. Turkey refused to meet with KRG because Iraq -- despite everything -- is still a unified country and I do not remember any other country that sits together with a regional administration instead of the federal government. Foreign relations have their own rules. and suggesting that the Turkish intelligence may have a hand in the killings of Turkish soldiers is not only preposterous, it reflects how sincere the Iraq government is in dealing with this problem. Instead of accepting the problem originates in their land, they are still accusing Turkey. What a shame... With this people, do you still think peace and negotiation is possible? The only thing that needs to be done is to be sincere, acknowledge that the KRG (and the US) support the PKK under the table and agree to turn over their leaders.
Posted By: ananda68 @ 10/24/2007 3:42:57 PM

Comment: Turks have been dealing with this dilemma since mid 1980's. Is the world aware of that?? How many civillians and soldiers have been lost ??: Ocalan and his terrorist groups had slaughtered so many innocent babies, families; so where was freaking amnesty at that time?? Terror groups?? Give us a break here?? We are so damn late to stop these monsters, we should have get in there much earlier!!! Turkey has lost soo many innocent civilians. Turkish military will raise hell over there, as those bastards did many many years: Enough is enough. Turks no longer tolerate this. Hell with Freaking EU and stupid Amnesty ... We , The children of Ataturk , will put a stop in this Genocide!!!
Posted By: ANU-DRAGON @ 10/24/2007 7:02:21 AM

Comment: They are bloody terrorist killed many innocent people ( 2 months old babies, teachers, doctors, students, childrens ) in Turkey. They are baby killers. If you want I can send their dead small body pictures taken by press. The babies are not bigger then your palm. These terrorist are like animals. And you are making intreviews with them. How many baby must be killed by them to be called as terrorist by you?
Posted By: saint140 @ 10/24/2007 4:54:05 AM

Comment: Go on calling these terrorists as rebels who kill innocent citizens of turkish republic, who kill kurdish people as well.PKK is not kurdish rebels, there are millions of Kurdish people in Turkey who do not face any racist discrimination, I am one of them.So your terrorists is bad and they are terrorists, our terrorists are good and they are rebels!!!Turkish society is loosing all the goodwill and trust to EU
Posted By: toker @ 10/24/2007 1:51:29 AM

Comment: If Russia were to attack Turkey from the rear, would Greece help?
Posted By: gloriousfall @ 10/23/2007 8:28:59 PM

Comment: Turkey has a reason to get in to Northern Iraq, the same reason the US used to attack Afghanistan and Iraq, to eliminate terrorists. In this case, Kurdish terrorists (not rebels, terrorists) are crossing the Turkish border and killing some random innocent people and going back to where they came from, Northern Iraq . And if Iraqi government is not willing to do anything about it, Turkey is probably going to do. Plus, whoever tells Turkey to not invade Iraq should explain Turkey what they are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq. (By the way, what happened to Saddam`s mass destruction weapons? Maybe we should blame Turkey for that too :))
Posted By: gloriousfall @ 10/23/2007 8:22:17 PM

Comment: Turkey has a reason to get in to Northern Iraq and crash down whatever it finds there. The reason is the same reason when the US was attacking Afganistan and also Iraq, to eliminate terrorist. In this case, Kurdish terrorists (not rebels, terrorists) are crossing the Turkish border and killing innocent people and that`s enough for Turkey to attack. It`s just a matter of time. Whoever tells Turkey to not invade Northern Iraq should tell Turkey what they are doing in Afghanistan and also in Iraq (Where is Saddam`s mass destruction weapons? Maybe we should blame Turkey for that too :))
Posted By: FatSean @ 10/23/2007 4:27:32 PM

Comment: My government is such a bundle of incompetents. I love watching them flail and struggle and fail. You'd think that after our third failure in nation building and unilateral application of military force that we'd back off this aggressive stance. Nope, we keep charging headlong into yet another quagmire and manage to produce the worst case outcome every time.
- Posted By: ananda68 @ 10/24/2007 3:45:28 PM
  
  Comment: What an honesty!!! I agree with you
Posted By: Azim @ 10/23/2007 12:20:26 PM

Comment: The situation is very sticky it seems according to the conversation with the Iraqi Foreign Minister in Northern part of Iraq. It is not only an embarrassment for the U.S if Turkey is to take any action in that part of Iraqi border. It seems to be that the Turkish at this present moment will not invade Iraq but may take some sort of military action in the area where the PKK has bases.

We are not sure what is the intention of the PKK in this regard. This part of Iraq is dominated by the Kurds and basically have an autonomy. Is it because the Iraqi Kurds are trying to help these PKK to carry out their movement against the Turks? The situation is very complex as it is and the parties involved in this region should not jeopardise the security of Iraq.
I think as a friend of the U.S. and a Nato member, Turky will at the end back down of invading northern part of Iraq. But we will have to see for now what transpires in the future as we see Syrian support of Turkey. They need to work out a deal among themselves in order to make matters worst.