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Thursday, April 5, 2007
As a
result, no large-scale PKK attacks expected soon
Ümit
ENGİNSOY
WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News
As Turkey is gearing up for critical presidential and
legislative elections and the United States is struggling in
an ongoing war in Iraq, the last thing
Washington wants to
see is unilateral Turkish
military action
inside neighboring northern Iraq to root out the terrorist
Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) bases there.
Also as
Turkey's civilian government and its Army remain reluctant
for such an intervention, military action inside Iraqi
territory would be likely only in the event of large-scale
terrorist action, prompting huge Turkish public anger. The
PKK's attacks killed nearly 600 people last year, according
to U.S. figures.
In the
meantime, unofficial and indirect U.S. and direct Iraqi
Kurdish pressure forced the PKK to declare a cease-fire last
fall. But experience shows that such truces in the past were
practically imposed by harsh winter conditions in Turkey's
southeast, with the PKK resuming its attacks in the spring.
So as snow melts in areas where the PKK operates, will the
terrorists launch new and major attacks in upcoming weeks?
Conversations with U.S. and Turkish officials and analysts
lead to a conclusion that although the United States says it
is committed to an eventual eradication of the PKK from
northern Iraq, it lacks a will and strength to take on the
PKK physically. The only remaining option in the short term,
that also would contain Turkish public pressure, is to
prevent the PKK from resorting to large-scale violence.
So an
undeclared U.S. policy at least until the fall shapes up as
containment of the PKK violence, also eliminating the threat
of Turkish military intervention into Iraq.
It is
clear that the United States wants next month's presidential
election in Turkey to be free from political turmoil, at
least on the PKK issue, and the containment policy's
rehearsal took place during celebrations for the Kurdish New
Year, Nevruz, late last month.
Under a
U.S. demand, Iraqi Kurdish leaders urged the PKK to remain
inactive during Nevruz, and the result was that the
celebrations were the most peaceful ones in recent years,
one source said.
US
divided on PKK:
The
reasons for Washington to opt for a less risky strategy on
the PKK are multifold.
First,
President George W.
Bush's administration
is divided over how to handle the PKK problem, U.S. sources
admit.
The
State Department's Europe bureau and the U.S. European
Command, which has an experience of working with the Turkish
military for decades, call for more radical moves against
the PKK, while the State Department's Near East bureau and
the U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, responsible for Iraq
and the Middle East, tend to disregard Ankara's worries
because of their own Iraq concerns. Also, CENTCOM still
feels a grudge toward Turkey, which refused to facilitate
Iraq's invasion four years ago.
Secondly, the United States views its co-operation with
Iraqi Kurds, its closest allies in the war-torn country, as
indispensable.
But
Iraqi Kurdish leaders refuse to treat the PKK as a terrorist
group, saying Turkey should resolve this problem through
internal democratic means. As Iraqi Kurds vehemently rule
out fighting the PKK, the United States, which is already
facing several other conflicts in other parts of Iraq, also
declines to consider a military approach on the PKK.
One
Turkish analyst suggested that the United States might be
tolerating the PKK, because it was using the terrorist
group's Iranian arm Pejak, or the Party for a Free Life in
Kurdistan, against the Islamic regime in Tehran. But U.S.
officials categorically deny the claim and Turkish officials
say they see no indication of such co-operation.
"I
understand that the United States is exerting pressure on
Iraqi Kurdish leaders to keep the PKK under control, in
other words, to prevent the PKK from resuming terrorist
attacks," said one senior Turkish official. "So I personally
don't expect heightened PKK attacks in the next several
months. The PKK is trying to look sympathetic to the
Americans, they are behaving like 'tamed
puppies.'"
But Edip
Başer, Turkey's special envoy for countering terrorism, said
temporary measures to contain the PKK would not satisfy the
Turks. "We don't want the PKK threat to hang over us like
the sword of Damocles. We want the problem over the PKK's
presence in northern Iraq to be resolved once and for all,"
he told the Turkish Daily News during a visit here last
week.
US
wants Turkish-Iraqi Kurd reconciliation:
In a
bigger picture, the United States believes that the PKK
problem could be resolved through co-operation between
Ankara and the Iraqi
Kurds, and eventually with the help of additional democratic
reforms regarding Turkey's Kurdish question.
Testifying in a congressional hearing last month,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice implied that a key
mission for Joseph Ralston, U.S. special envoy for
countering the PKK, was to try to boost reconciliation and
dialogue between Turkey and Iraqi Kurds.
Ralston
was appointed last August after Turkey threatened to send
its military to northern Iraq in the wake of increased PKK
attacks killing scores of Turkish security force members.
"I'm
telling the Turks that their best friends in the region are
the Kurds, and I'm telling the Kurds that their best friends
are the Turks," Ralston told the Europe subcommittee of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee last month.
He last
week briefed Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman
of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace and the
president's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on the
latest on efforts to counter the PKK.
Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is seen closer to co-operation
with the Kurds, but Turkey's military views Iraqi Kurdish
leaders as key sponsors of PKK terrorism.
Turkey
is also wary of Iraqi Kurdish aspirations for independence,
including an effort to grab the control of the multiethnic
and oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Deputy
Chief of the Turkish General Staff Gen. Ergin Saygun accused
Iraqi Kurdish leaders of seeking independence, expansionism
and actively supporting the PKK in strongly-worded remarks
in a speech here last week.
Turkish Daily News
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=69878
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