Kurdistan IO Email

[Jedburgh]

"We have reminded the White House many times about the presence of the PKK in northern Iraq. We have notified the US over and over that the terrorists, which are being logistically supported there, are carrying out attacks in Turkey. We have reiterated that the administration in Baghdad is not strong enough on this subject, and we have asked the US to take precautions. But despite the passage of much time, nothing has happened on this front. Now, on top of everything else, Barzani has started making statements about how, if necessary, he will intervene in Diyarbakir. By giving a copy of the Baghdad note to America, we are saying to the US: You are directing Iraq, we are addressing you."

Hypocrisy to the extreme. Turkish intel (MiT) and SF operatives have been working in the north to foment discord between the Kurds and the Turkmen since the fall of Saddam. Which, if it needs to be said, goes directly against coalition desires for stability in that region. We've grabbed, bagged, and handed over their operatives a few times since the highly publicized incident in '03; keeping it quiet to reduce the level of friction with what is - still and all - a valuable regional ally.

Also to the point - the PKK would never have reached this degree of resurgence if Turkey had not failed to implement changes (thus far on paper only) toward its treatment of its Kurdish minority. After the capture of Ocalan, the PKK fragmented and became virtually incapable of conducting operations. The Turkish government failed to exploit a golden opportunity to truly bring all of its Kurdish citizens into the fold, and the re-emergence of violent Kurdish nationalism within Turkey is stark testimony to the abject failure of Turkish domestic policies.

Having said all that, this memo is meaningless crap. We don't have the luxury of troops or time to waste running Turkish errands. As stated, if they kept their own house in order, this wouldn't be an issue.

As a fluent TU linguist, I've had memorable times working with the soldiers of the Turkish Army in a variety of contexts. However, I do not have a single pleasant experience to relate from the years I spent working out of the MCC in northern Iraq during OPC. First off they were a constant annoyance, in that all our communications were monitored by the Turks - we knew it, and took measure to deal with it, complicating operations. Everything we needed had to come through Turkey, and everything was searched - even our mail was opened (packages and letters). Despite better relations at that time, at least publicly, they were convinced we were aiding and abetting the PKK. Our medics were always given an especially difficult time.

The Turkish Red Crescent offices in the north served as cover for Turkish Intelligence - MiT. Through them, the regional Turkmen parties were given support and assistance. We banned them from the MCC after we caught the Turkish signal NCO with a TRC rep in the comms room - the TRC rep was switching out crypto in the Turkish military base radio. The most interesting TRC incident was at the beginning of the March '95 Turkish military incursion into Northern Iraq. We stood on the roof of the MCC and watched a clearly marked TRC ambulance drive up to the border and act as a guide vehicle for the Turkish armored column - bringing them through town to where the main road split, where it remained to provide direction to follow-on forces.

However, for the car bomb incident the month prior, not only did the TRC not respond - but the Turks refused to permit US ambulances/medics across the border until the following day. Many died who could have been saved had doctors and equipment arrived immediately. Our two medics used up much of our store of medical supplies at the MCC that long day. And afterwards, the Turks refused to allow the US post-blast investigating team across the border for two weeks. Of course, anything that could have helped point to specific bad guys was OBE by that point.

Many of the Americans who were assigned to the MCC were on 90 day rotations - damn near all left hating the Turks. (And most of these guys were from 10th Group - who had often worked with the Turks before under friendlier circumstances) It was obvious to everyone that our data from village assessments was being used for targeting purposes by the Turks. Their "special missions" often ended up interfering with our air cover and disrupting the humanitarian mission. What got to everyone, was that many villages that were targeted by the TAF were ones that we had recently visited and assessed - and had nothing to do with the PKK. Hell, a key element in the friendly-fire shootdown of the Blackhawk flight in '94 was the Turkish "special mission" that was in the air without knowledge of the AWACS or the fighter pilots.

Our own Turks - the MCC co-commander, his assistant and a communications NCO were like enemies in our midst. We continually had to maintain tight security to keep them from sneaking unknown individuals into the compound at night. They were constantly trying to undermine our US trained Kurdish guard force with bribes, extortion and blackmail...I could go on, ad nauseum.

The Kurds of Northern Iraq hate the Turks. A large number of them were held in camps in SE Turkey where they fled from the Anfal - their treatment there by Turkey only reinforced hatred and distrust. In many cases, they also suffered worse than elements of the PKK during the Turks' annual spring-time incursions. The Turks were not there just to eliminate elements of the PKK. I was there during 3 different incursions and each time they willfully destroyed Kurdish farmland, took over and trashed schools, confiscated weapons' caches that belonged to the KDP/PUK (and many of which we had lists of serial numbers for registration), while doing little against the PKK itself - which always retreated to the most inhospitable portion of the mountains along the tri-border area. The farms, schools, and houses that were destroyed were, almost all the time, those that had been established with aid and assistance from USAID and various NGO's. Well, enough of the rant.

Permitting them to move into the area in force again would be a grave strategic error.

[tequila]

David Ignatius: A New Threat in Iraq.

While the Bush administration struggles to stabilize Baghdad, a major new threat is emerging in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. If it isn't defused, this crisis could further erode U.S. goals in Iraq -- drawing foreign military intervention, splintering the country further and undermining U.S. hopes for long-term military bases in Kurdistan.

The core issue is Kurdish nationalism, which worries Iraq's powerful northern neighbor, Turkey, which has a substantial Kurdish minority. The Bush administration has tried to finesse the problem, hoping to keep two friends happy: The Kurds have been America's most reliable partner in Iraq, while the Turks are a crucial ally in the region. But in recent weeks, this strategy has been breaking down.

...

The administration, realizing that it was drifting toward a confrontation over the Kurdish issue, last year appointed retired Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston as a special emissary. His mission is to urge the Iraqis to crack down on the militant Kurdish political party known as the PKK, which uses Iraqi Kurdistan as a staging point. The Turks denounce the PKK as a terrorist group and threaten that if the United States doesn't take decisive action to suppress it, the Turkish army will.

Ralston is said to have warned top administration officials in December that the Turks might invade by the end of April unless the United States contained the PKK. Other knowledgeable officials are similarly worried, and one analyst has predicted that the Turks may seize a border strip about eight miles deep into Iraq. Ralston has tried his best to defuse the crisis, clearing a Kurdish refugee camp of suspected PKK members and talking regularly with both sides. But the time bomb continues to tick.

...

Turks and Kurds have fired heavy rhetorical barrages the past few weeks. Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani warned that if the Turks meddled in Kirkuk, "then we will take action for the 30 million Kurds in Turkey." The head of the Turkish general staff, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, responded that "from an exclusively military point of view," he favored an invasion of Iraq to clean out PKK havens. If the Turks do attack, counters one Kurdish official, "their own border will not be respected. They will not be the only ones to choose the battlefield."

A wild card in the Kurdish problem is Iran. Like the Turks, the Iranians have a restless Kurdish minority and would be tempted to intervene militarily against a militant group called PJAK that operates from Iraqi Kurdistan. Indeed, top Iranian military officers met in Ankara recently for discussions with the Turkish general staff about possible military contingencies in Iraq, according to one U.S. official.

...

Adding to this toxic brew is growing tension between the United States and Kurdish leaders. The Kurds were furious when they weren't given prior notice about a U.S. Special Forces raid in January that attempted to snatch two top Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers at the Irbil airport in Kurdistan. Unwitting Kurdish pesh merga troops at the airport nearly opened fire on the Americans. Although the airport raid was a failure, U.S. forces did manage to grab five Revolutionary Guard members at an Iranian consular office, which embarrassed the Kurdish leadership. The Kurds feel their friendship for America has been taken for granted ...

[tequila]

Ankara suicide bomber identified as Kurdish. Not good.

Update: PKK denies the Ankara attack.

[Jedburgh]

SE European Times, 25 May 07:

Turkey's Erdogan says he'll back military request for Iraqi incursion

Speaking to reporters Thursday (May 24th), Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed government support for the military if it decides to launch a cross-border operation against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. Erdogan said he is confident that Parliament would back it as well, especially after the Ankara bomb blast Tuesday that killed six people and injured 100....

[wm]

SE European Times, 25 May 07:

Turkey's Erdogan says he'll back military request for Iraqi incursion

This could be a shrewd political move by Erdogan. Especially given that he and Gul are facing serious concerns about their Islamist tendencies and have already been warned that the Turkish army will enforce what it views as an appropriate separation of church and state. One way to deflect the people's attention is to get his countrymen refocused on those nasty Kurds who keep blowing up Turks.

[tequila]

This could be a shrewd political move by Erdogan. Especially given that he and Gul are facing serious concerns about their Islamist tendencies and have already been warned that the Turkish army will enforce what it views as an appropriate separation of church and state. One way to deflect the people's attention is to get his countrymen refocused on those nasty Kurds who keep blowing up Turks.

Actually based on what I have read and heard from my one Turkish-American friend (rabidly anti-AK, former Turkish Army infantry officer) is that the anti-Kurdish push is largely the province of the secular nationalist officer corps. The AK Party is viewed by the officer corps as soft on Kurdish terrorism as part of their program to join the EU --- this is in line with the reforms AK has instituted regarding human rights. There were some initiatives which AK introduced in the southeast, for instance allowing Kurdish-language broadcasts, that were adamantly opposed and ultimately rolled back by the military in the late 1990s.

AK has largely sacrificed what pro-Kurdish tendencies it may have had since the Iraq War. The gains made by Iraqi Kurds and the military's increasing paranoia over this, as well as possibly related increasing militancy on the part of the PKK and the Kurdish terror groups, have put the kibosh on any possible Kurdish rights in Turkey. Suicide bombs going off in Ankara have a way of doing that, I suppose.

Of course whether the military is using the Kurdish issue as a way to regain its dominance over the government is also a major question, not least among Turks themselves.

[Jedburgh]

....The AK Party is viewed by the officer corps as soft on Kurdish terrorism as part of their program to join the EU --- this is in line with the reforms AK has instituted regarding human rights. There were some initiatives which AK introduced in the southeast, for instance allowing Kurdish-language broadcasts, that were adamantly opposed and ultimately rolled back by the military in the late 1990s....

The Turkish officer corps is heavily indoctrinated in the unique brand of Kemalist ethno-nationalism that makes up the mythology of the modern Turkish state. Of course they will view any party or individual who deviates from those lines as "soft on terrorism" and often as a threat to the state itself.

In any case, the AKP didn't come to power in Turkey until late 2002 - so how could they have introduced reforms that were rolled back in the "late 1990s"?

But getting to the point, the bans on Kurdish broadcasting and education were lifted in Aug 02 - before the AKP had their big electoral victory in Nov of that year. These bans have not yet been "rolled back", but they are sorely lacking in implementation. Significant obstacles have repeatedly been thrown in the way of any meaningful education in the Kurdish language, and what little Kurdish language broadcasting does go over the airwaves must pass through stern censor hurdles. It is easy to see how someone working in any branch of the Turkish military and security services would claim that they have "rolled back" the reforms....

[wm]

Actually based on what I have read and heard from my one Turkish-American friend (rabidly anti-AK, former Turkish Army infantry officer) is that the anti-Kurdish push is largely the province of the secular nationalist officer corps. The AK Party is viewed by the officer corps as soft on Kurdish terrorism as part of their program to join the EU --- this is in line with the reforms AK has instituted regarding human rights. There were some initiatives which AK introduced in the southeast, for instance allowing Kurdish-language broadcasts, that were adamantly opposed and ultimately rolled back by the military in the late 1990s.

AK has largely sacrificed what pro-Kurdish tendencies it may have had since the Iraq War. The gains made by Iraqi Kurds and the military's increasing paranoia over this, as well as possibly related increasing militancy on the part of the PKK and the Kurdish terror groups, have put the kibosh on any possible Kurdish rights in Turkey. Suicide bombs going off in Ankara have a way of doing that, I suppose.

Of course whether the military is using the Kurdish issue as a way to regain its dominance over the government is also a major question, not least among Turks themselves.

The antipathy for Kurds within the Turkish military is well known. They really do not like getting shot or blown up by the PKK rebels. (Can you blame them? I would not have been too partial to having my troops shot at by Louisiana Cajun separatists.) Erdogan may be trying to play to this tendency by his statements about supporting a cross-border incursion, buying the military off from intervening in his efforts to secure the presidency for his party.

It will be interesting to see whether this is operating as a subtext and whether the Turkish Army will go for the bait.
Disclaimer
[Lest someone take offense here, my choice of Cajuns is a purely silly example--I could have opted for a host of other groups in the US but they would have been even much less PC than the one I chose].