Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

Analysis: A possible new Iraq war

A Turkish invasion of Iraq over the Kurdish separatist group based in the northern Iraq mountains highlights -- and risks escalating -- the tension between Washington and allies Turkey, Iraq and Iraq’s Kurds.

Turkey is mad at the United States for what it sees as the selective prosecution of the war on terrorism, among other reasons, and blames Iraq’s national government and the Kurdistan Regional Government for not stopping the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by its initials PKK.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the PKK, recognized by Turkey and the United States as a terrorist organization, needs to be stopped. Turkey’s Parliament has authorized military action, and Erdogan says he has the right to act if no one else will.

The PKK has launched attacks in Turkey for decades, part of a struggle for more autonomy for Kurdish people, if not independence altogether. The most recent was Sunday when the Turkish military was ambushed and 17 soldiers were killed, 16 injured and eight kidnapped.

Washington and Baghdad are urging Ankara to hold off on an incursion. The United States and Europe both condemned the recent attack.

But Turkey’s government is feeling the pressure to act. Erdogan told The London Times there is “a serious wave of anti-Americanism” in Turkey, largely stoked by U.S. congressional legislation condemning the killing of Armenians during World War I.

The KRG says military action against the PKK has not worked in the past and wants a dialogue between Ankara and Irbil, at least, if not Baghdad and Washington at the table.

“We believe there is room for political, peaceful solution,” Falah Mustafa Bakir, the KRG foreign minister, said Friday in Washington during a U.S. diplomatic visit, adding the KRG would take military action against the PKK if it thought it would work.

He said the KRG has influence “only to an extent” over the PKK. The KRG says it has seen no proof that anyone based in Iraq is directly linked to planning or carrying out attacks in Turkey.

Massoud Barzani, president of the KRG, in a joint news conference with Kurdish leader and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, fanned the flames by neither outright condemning nor supporting the PKK.

"However, if the conflict directly entangled us or the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, we will definitely defend ourselves," Barzani said Sunday.

Qubad Talabani, the Iraqi president’s son and the KRG representative to the United States, in reasoning against the invasion, points to the failed military attempts to fight the PKK in the past, the extent of Turkish investment in the KRG economy, and the effect on Kurdish moderates living inside Turkey.

“If (Turkey) invades Iraqi Kurdistan,” Talabani said, “these moderates will have no choice but to become less moderate.”

“It could set a precedent,” he added. “If Turkey goes in unilaterally, what’s to stop any of Iraq’s other neighbors from going in?”

Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria all have large Kurdish populations, and all are wary of calls for Kurdish statehood.

As a result, Turkey doesn’t formally recognize the KRG. On issues like oil and fuel sales between the two countries, or a new oil pipeline from the KRG directly to Turkey, or finding common ground against the PKK, Ankara will only sit down with Baghdad.

Inside Iraq, the Kurds have tried to strike a balance between autonomy while being a part of the new Iraq.

The Kurds have been semiautonomous since the Gulf War in the 1990s per U.N. mandate and U.S. and British protection, which is why their political system, military and economy are more advanced than the rest of Iraq.

But disagreements with Baghdad over its role in the oil sector, among other issues, have soured the relationship.

“They have been insistent regarding the expansion of the KRG into mixed areas of the country (well beyond Kirkuk),” said Wayne White, Iraq expert at the Middle East Institute, referring to the oil-rich territory Kurds claim as theirs. “They have been largely defiant on issues related to the balance of power between Baghdad and the regions (such as oil and revenue sharing), measures aimed at reviving Kurdish identity have smacked of quasi-independence (flying the KRG flag instead of the Iraqi flag, for example), and they have taken practically no action to crack down on the PKK."

United Press International - International Security - Emerging Threats - Analysis

Good Morning Seaview. I really appreciate your flow of updates. Change is in the wind in Iraq, so I think it more critical now than last year to be informed. Thank you and wish you well. Warrior

Thanks Warrior

Interior Minister Renews Syria's support to Iraq

Minister of Interior Bassam Abdul-Majeed on Tuesday reiterated Syria's permanent support to the Iraqi people and the political process in Iraq to achieve freedom, independence and territorial integrity.

"Syria, which was one of the first countries that suffered from terrorism, underlines condemnation of the terrorist acts targeting the Iraqi civilians and national institutions," Abdul-Majeed said at a meeting for the interior ministers of Iraq neighboring countries in Kuwait.

He renewed Syria's commitment to provide security along border lines with Iraq and prevent infiltrations in and out of it, saying that border control is a joint responsibility that should be assumed by Iraq and the neighboring countries.

Interior ministers of Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, and Iraq in addition to Bahrain and Egypt are taking part in the meeting.

Interior Minister Renews Syria's support to Iraq | Iraq Updates

Iraq PM orders crackdown on PKK
Maliki orders closing of Kurdistan Workers' Party offices, restricting rebel’s movements, funding.

Iraq's prime minister ordered a crackdown Tuesday on Kurdish PKK rebels, saying Iraq will no longer tolerate the "terrorist" group on its soil, amid Turkish threats of a military incursion.

"The PKK is a bad terrorist organisation and we have taken a decision to close its offices and not allow them to work on Iraqi soil," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said after he met visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.

"We are putting all our efforts to eliminate their terrorist activities that threaten Iraq and Turkey," said Maliki, who has been under pressure from Ankara and Washington to act against the Iraq-based rebels attacking Turkey.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who is a Kurd, said earlier that Iraq had begun undertaking a series of measures to thwart the rebels, "including restricting their movements, (their) funding and closing of their offices".

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) largely operates clandestinely through local social groups in the three northern Iraqi Kurdish provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk.

Maliki said he was keen to maintain healthy relations with Turkey and "an increase in political dialogue was the way....not adopting a military action" to solve the Kurdish rebel issue.

Babacan used his high-profile visit to reassure Iraq that Turkey wants a diplomatic solution to the problem of Kurdish rebel bases.

"Politics, dialogue, diplomacy, culture and economy are the measures to deal with this crisis," the Turkish minister said at a joint news conference in Baghdad with Zebari.

"We do not want to sacrifice our cultural and economic relations with Iraq for the sake of a terror organisation," he said, referring to the PKK which has waged deadly insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

But Babacan rejected a truce offer made by the PKK on Monday in return for an end to Turkish military action.

"The issue of ceasefire is an issue between two countries and two armies and not with a terror organisation," he said.

Babacan said diplomacy remained the best way to resolve the crisis de****e the "huge anger" in Turkey over the deaths of 12 soldiers and kidnapping of eight others in a weekend attack by the rebels on a patrol near the border.

Tens of thousands of Turks protested across Turkey on Tuesday during the funerals of the slain soldiers as a pro-Kurdish news agency published pictures of the eight soldiers.

"We are all soldiers, we will smash the PKK," mourners chanted at one such funeral, while a placard at another funeral read "Treacherous Talabani... give us the dogs," referring to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

Talabani -- also a Kurd -- has said that Baghdad is unable to capture and hand over PKK rebels based in northern Iraq as requested by Ankara.

In London, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara had still not ruled out military action, sanctioned by parliament last week.

"The Iraqi government must know that we can exercise this mandate we have received from the Turkish parliament at any time," Erdogan said after talks with his British counterpart Gordon Brown.

Brown said he understood the anger and frustration in Turkey over the presence of Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

"I can assure you we are doing everything in our power... to make sure that there is no safe haven for terrorist organisations in that part of Iraq threatening Turkey," he said.

Ahead of his talks in London, Erdogan had raised the possibility of joint action with the United States against PKK bases inside Iraq.

As he flew into London, he told the mass-selling Turkish daily Hurriyet that he had discussed with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the possibility of joint action against the rebels.

Erdogan said he received the signal that Washington might become involved during a telephone conversation with Rice on Sunday.

"She was worried. I saw she was in favour of a joint operation," he said. "She asked for a few days' time and said she would come back to us."

Washington said Tuesday that it may provide Turkey with intelligence to help its armed forces strike Kurdish rebels based in Iraq, but downplayed talk of joint military operations.

"Actionable intelligence is something that we can provide," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

The United States, which uses the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey to supply its forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, fears any unilateral military action by Turkey could wreck efforts to stabilise Iraq.

Iraq PM orders crackdown on PKK | Iraq Updates

Iraqi Neighbor Countries Meeting Held in Kuwait

Iraqi neighbor countries meeting for the ministers of Interior held yesterday in Kuwait in the presence of the ministers of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.

The ministers stressed the necessity of bilateral, regional and international cooperation with Iraq to help it to achieve security and stability.

The ministers also stressed on helping Iraq in the reconstruction process, achieving the national reconciliation and participating of all the Iraqis in the political process.

The ministers ended their meeting yesterday night by giving importance to cooperation in the security field and exchange the information for fighting terror.

PUKmedia :: English - Iraqi Neighbor Countries Meeting Held in Kuwait

Turkish Army Vacating Villages Near the Borders

The Turkish army started to vacate the villages near the border areas for security reasons. Meanwhile, discussions are still going on for launching a military operation in northern Iraq to eliminate the PKK elements.

News Turk website mentioned yesterday that women, youths and children have left their villages to places near the main cities, and the schools of these villages were closed.

The Christian’s village Dishtatia mayor Hanna Mosebedo said that his village has become empty and only 25 old men remains there.

”We sent our families to the main cities, because of our fears from these military operations”, Mosebedo added, and he mentioned that the Turkish forces shells daily the areas near to his village since last month.

It’s worth mentioning that the border areas contains about 200 Kurdish and Christian villages.

PUKmedia :: English - Turkish Army Vacating Villages Near the Borders

Statement from the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region
The continuing crisis between the Government of Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)

KRG
The policy of the Presidency, the Government, and the political parties of the Kurdistan Region related to this issue can be summarized as follows:

1. We do not believe in the use of violence as a doctrine and method to achieve political objectives.


2. We do not accept in any way, based on our commitment to the Iraqi constitution, the use of Iraqi territories, including the territories of the Kurdistan Region, as a base to threaten the security of neighboring countries.


3. We call upon the PKK to eliminate violence and armed struggle as a mode of operation. The current problems should be solved through political and diplomatic methods. It is necessary to stop using other methods, which are useless, and we demand that the PKK remain committed to the cease fire and not resort to armed operations.


4. We condemn all terrorist activities from any party because the people of Kurdistan itself are victims of terrorism. We have always struggled for the sake of peace, democracy, development and stability for our people and peoples of the region. We are in fact in a bitter and continued state of struggle against terrorism.

We declare that these principles are the firm policies of the people of Kurdistan, we reiterate that we endeavor to build friendly relations with the people of the region and we share a commitment to good neighborly relations with all.

We have always called for peace and security and we believe that the outstanding problems can be solved only through dialogue and understanding.

Official spokesman of the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region

PUKmedia :: English - Statement from the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region

Turk Forces Attacked Rebels in N. Iraq - Army Sources

ANKARA - Turkish warplanes and ground troops attacked Kurdish rebel positions just inside northern Iraq between Sunday and Tuesday evening, military sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

The warplanes flew as deep as 20 km (13 miles) into Iraqi territory and some 300 ground troops advanced about 10 km, killing 34 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the sources said.

They made clear these were small sorties of a kind that Turkish forces have been known to conduct in the past across the mountainous border, not a large-scale offensive that U.S. and Iraqi authorities are trying to avert.

"Further 'hot pursuit' raids into northern Iraq can be expected, though none have taken place so far today (Wednesday)," a military official said, adding that all Turkish troops involved in the operations were now back in Turkey.

PUKmedia :: English - Turk Forces Attacked Rebels in N. Iraq - Army Sources

House Speaker Arrives in Damascus to Talk Over Iraqi Refugees

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday night on a five-day visit to the country to talk about the issue of Iraqi refugees and the new Syrian visa restrictions.

"Al-Mashhadani arrived in Damascus on Tuesday night to discuss with the Syrian officials the issue of Iraqi refugees and the visa system imposed by Syria last month on Iraqis wishing to enter its territories," Abdullah al-Zanka, a media source from the parliament, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on Wednesday.

"More than a million and a half Iraqis are waiting for true and successful efforts to solve their cause," al-Zanka also said.

Al-Mashhadani told the VOI yesterday before heading to Syria that his talks with the Syrians will focus on the issue of Iraqi refugees and finding means to ease their suffering as well as the recent Syrian decision to impose visa on Iraqis.

Syria started applying its new visa regulations last month requiring Iraqis wishing to travel to it to get an entry visa from the Syrian embassy in Iraq in advance.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated the number of Iraqis residing in Syria at 1.4 million.

Syria says it is overwhelmed by Iraqi refugees whose accommodation puts a great financial burden on it.

PUKmedia :: English - House Speaker Arrives in Damascus to Talk Over Iraqi Refugees