11
December 2002
2. "US puts KADEK on terror list", the U.S. Department of State has also extended financial sanctions against KADEK to include the assets and transactions of its aliases, according to the Federal Register.
3. "Turkey Deploys Thousands Of Troops To Iraqi Border", Turkey has moved additional troops to its southern border with Iraq. Turkish sources said thousands of military and paramilitary forces were deployed around the Iraqi border over the weekend. They said the forces were comprised of mostly infantry as well as support units.
4. "Pressure Mounts on Many Sides to End Conflict on Cyprus", they have not moved in 28 years — the watchtowers, the rusting oil barrels topped with barbed wire, the sagging sandbag positions. The scene looks anachronistic, like something out of Soviet-era Berlin, except that this is a sunny island in the eastern Mediterranean.
5. "Turkey Names Its Price for Aid Against Iraq", Support on EU and Economy Sought From U.S. for Assistance in War Effort.
6. "Turkey attacks EU for 'double standards'", Turkey’s new leader accused the European Union of double standards yesterday for extending membership to states with chequered human rights records while refusing to consider his country’s application.
7. "Inside the Turkey question - What kind of Europe?", Europe is at last, however circumspectly, even apprehensively, approaching the primordial question of what it intends to become.
8. "Iraqi Kurds fear 'renewed genocide'", Kurdish forces expect to be involved in any fighting.
1. - "The Kurdish Observer - "“Ocalan’s rights are violated”:
DIHA/ISTANBUL / 10 December 2002
Aysel Tugluk, one of the lawyers of KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan,
stated that Ocalan had not been able to enjoy his rights to this day
and they suspected that new laws would limit them more. Talking to DIHA,
Tugluk said that they had suspicions that amendments on laws bringing
new rights to prisons like telephone, internet and television would
not grant any favor to Ocalan. Tugluk emphasized that Ocalan faced a
special statue, saying the following: "In the Imrali Island regulations
of crisis are in valid.
Aysel Tugluk, one of the lawyers of KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan, stated that Ocalan had not been able to enjoy his rights to this day and they suspected that new laws would limit them more. Talking to DIHA, Tugluk said that they had suspicions that amendments on laws bringing new rights to prisons like telephone, internet and television would not grant any favor to Ocalan. Tugluk emphasized that Ocalan faced a special statue, saying the following: “In the Imrali Island regulations of crisis are in valid. The commandership in the island have extra-ordinary authority given by the regulations. They can make decisions without regarding any laws. Ocalan cannot enjoy his rights granted by laws. All his rights are limited on the grounds of security.”
“The one and only authority is military”
Drawing attention that these regulations were in force
only in extra-ordinary situations, Tugluk continued with words to the
effect: “Although there is no such situation in Imrali island,
this regulation is in force. The authority to make decisions is on the
hands of military. Bursa Public Prosecution Office has given permission
to enjoy open visits with his family at feasts and special days but
the island commander cancelled it. We suspect that recently granted
rights will be obstructed too. In a word, we do not have any hope. Because
as far as the past experiences are concerned we think that the commander
may say ‘we cannot permit it due to security’.” 
2. - Turkish Daily News / AP / U.S. Federal Register - "US puts KADEK on terror list":
11 December 2002
The U.S. Department of State has also extended financial sanctions
against KADEK to include the assets and transactions of its aliases,
according to the Federal Register.
The illegal Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) that changed its name will remain on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations, and any financial assets it has in the United States will be frozen, the State Department said Monday.
The United States has also extended financial sanctions against KADEK to include the assets and transactions of its aliases, according to the Federal Register on Monday.
The sanctions now apply to KADEK, the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress. KADEK is the new name for the PKK which fought Turkish security forces in southeastern Turkey from 1984.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell added the aliases to a Treasury Department list of alleged terrorist groups liable for the financial sanctions, a notice in the register said.
That list is broader than the State Department's list of 35 "foreign terrorist organizations," which includes the PKK.
The department acted a day before Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
leader of Turkey's ruling political party, is to meet at the White House
with President George W. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice.
3. - World Tribune - "Turkey Deploys Thousands Of Troops To Iraqi Border":
11 December 2002
Turkey has moved additional troops to its southern border with Iraq.
Turkish sources said thousands of military and paramilitary forces were
deployed around the Iraqi border over the weekend. They said the forces
were comprised of mostly infantry as well as support units.
The reason for the Turkish deployment was not given. But the troop movement was reported during escalated fighting in northern Iraq between pro-U.S. forces and Al Qaida supporters near the Iranian border. Much of the fighting has taken place near the city of Halabja during the Muslim holiday of Id El Fitr, Middle East Newsline reported.
The United States has deployed the aircraft carrier Harry Truman in the Mediterranean. The warship, regarded as the most advanced in the U.S. Navy, heads a carrier group of 12 warships and 80,000 soldiers.Turkey was already said to have more than 10,000 troops along the Iraqi border. Many of the troops were deployed in northern Iraq and operate in coordination with the United States. The military has also transported communications and logistics to the Iraqi border. The sources said the supplies and troops arrived from southern and southeastern Turkey.
Turkish sources said the military preparations near the
Iraqi border have led to increased tension with the new Islamic-oriented
government of Prime Minister Abdullah Gul. They said civilian officials
and military commanders openly disagreed over Ankara's policy during
the visit by U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to to Turkey
last week. At one point, Turkish Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit
disputed an assertion by Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis that Ankara had
decided to allow U.S. warplanes to use Turkish air force bases for any
war against Iraq.
4. - The New York Times - "Pressure Mounts on Many Sides to End Conflict on Cyprus":
NICOSIA / 11 December 2002 / by Marlise Simons
They have not moved in 28 years — the watchtowers, the rusting
oil barrels topped with barbed wire, the sagging sandbag positions.
The scene looks anachronistic, like something out of Soviet-era Berlin,
except that this is a sunny island in the eastern Mediterranean.
Most Europeans have never seen the menacing buffer zone that cuts through Cyprus, carving up even this capital city, to keep apart the Turks in the northern sector and the Greeks in the southern. While there is some optimism that the rift can be healed, diplomats here say it seems more likely that Europe will soon inherit the island's longstanding and prickly problems, against its will.
Cyprus is one of 10 prospective member countries that are expected to sit at the table in Copenhagen this week, when the European Union is scheduled to approve the largest expansion since its creation more than half a century ago. Plans are to extend the union to 25 nations from 15 by 2004.
The Greek part of Cyprus has made all the necessary, complex legal changes to join the club, but hurdles remain. Europe is reluctant to take on board a divided island with myriad problems, including United Nations peacekeepers stuck between Turkish and Greek troops.
For its part, the Greek Parliament has said it will not accept any enlargement without Cyprus. The Parliament has warned that it will use its veto to block the entire European expansion scheme unless Cyprus, wholly or in part, is admitted at Copenhagen this week.
Until recently, Turkey had opposed efforts to find a compromise on reunification. But Turkey's new government, whose major coalition member has Islamist roots, has seemed more open to a deal. It is conducting its own campaign to join the European Union, and in recent days, Turkish politicians have implied that they can deliver a deal on Cyprus if in return they are granted a firm date to start talks about Turkish accession to the union.
Diplomats have dashed back and forth across the buffer zone in recent days, trying to fashion a final agreement. They carry revised and reworked drafts of a reunification plan offered by Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, in early November, which they hope the Cypriot leaders will sign before the end of the European meeting.
Foreign ministers and envoys from half a dozen countries, including the United States, have weighed in, saying a deal now is a historic opportunity and not to be missed, and they are privately pressing the island's leaders and their supporters in the capitals of Turkey and Greece.
"I've never seen such international attention and so much pushing behind the scenes," said Michalis Pappapetrou, a member of the Greek Cypriot team. "The plan has its problems, but we are ready to deal with it." The United Nations proposes a loose federation of two, partly autonomous zones under one revolving presidency, a drastic reduction of troops and the return of refugees and their property. Today, less than 48 hours before the summit meeting, a deal seemed far from assured.
"The situation is extremely volatile, all the balls are still in the air," said a senior European diplomat. "Of course you could get a solution in a few hours, everybody knows the issues so well."
The island's two leaders, Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot president, and Rauf Denktash, leader of Northern Cyprus, both said this weekend that they needed more time because crucial parts of the plan were not acceptable. Rather than traveling to Copenhagen, as Mr. Annan requested, Mr. Denktash may go to Turkey for treatment for his recurrent heart problems, an aide said.
Projects to solve the Cyprus problem are as old as the buffer zone itself. It was set up in 1974 when Turkish troops invaded to block a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece. Over the years, United Nations envoys, diplomats and other mediators have tried and failed at reconciliation. Western politicians have grown exasperated with the two recalcitrant sides of this small nation, which is about half the size Connecticut but with fewer than one million inhabitants.
On both sides of the Cyprus divide, the younger generations sound tired of the two aging nationalist leaders, who have been adversaries since the 1960's. "Let's get the old people out and let the young politicians decide," said Savvides Panayiotes, an ethnic Greek and director of a new information technology company. "We can work this out, applying European Union principles."
On the Turkish — and far poorer — side of the capital, there are signs that Mr. Denktash is becoming increasingly marginalized. There were meetings in support of a deal during his recent two-month absence in New York for heart surgery. Two weeks ago, about 10,000 Turkish Cypriots demonstrated in Nicosia, carrying European Union flags. "We need peace and we need to join Europe," said Mehmet Aktar, a teacher born after the separation.
Mr. Denktash returned from New York on Friday and reportedly is trying to restore the old order. Today, Turkish Cypriots, many of them government employees, protested against the United Nations plan, carrying banners saying, "We trust Denktash."
Beyond the details and objections to the plan, other questions
remain. One is how much punch Mr. Denktash still has in Ankara, where
he was long seen as the hero who stood up to the Greeks. But Ankara
and Athens have now patched up relations. Another issue is the opinion
of Turkey's powerful generals, who are said to oppose giving up much
territory and who are displeased with the proposal to cut back their
troops.
5. - The Washington Post - "Turkey Names Its Price for Aid Against Iraq":
Support on EU and Economy Sought From U.S. for Assistance in War Effort
ISTANBUL / 11 December 2002 / by Karl Vick
The last time the United States went to war against Iraq, Sadan
Argun lost his house and his car. The tourists who used to buy his miniature
boxes and hand-painted candles stopped coming to Turkey -- next door
to the Persian Gulf War -- and the resulting economic crash was as abrupt
as it was steep.
"What we went through was real," said Argun, at the end of another day standing behind a lonely tabletop of the trinkets he once paid 40 people to make by the gross. "Everybody would consider the Gulf War a significant starting point for the downturn."
Now, a decade later, the United States is asking Turkey to play a pivotal role in a fresh military enterprise, and quiet bargaining over the price of cooperation is under way. In exchange for use of its territory by U.S. troops and aircraft against Iraq, the Turkish government is asking for significant economic help to make sure there is no repeat of the recession that followed the 1991 war. Just as eagerly, it wants the Bush administration to persuade the European Union to respond more favorably to a long-delayed Turkish bid for membership.
The United States strongly backs the bid, as President Bush emphasized repeatedly in Washington today while receiving Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of Turkey's new governing party. Membership in the prosperous club of European nations, U.S. officials say, would not only boost Turkey's economy; it would enhance Turkey's status as a model of secular democracy in a Muslim country.
More immediately, analysts and diplomats add, signs of progress on EU membership would improve American chances of winning permission to mass ground troops in Turkey in addition to basing warplanes here, a necessity for opening a northern front in any new war against President Saddam Hussein's government in Baghdad.
But despite the endorsement in Washington, Europe's willingness to embrace the Turkish application anytime soon remains in doubt. European foreign ministers today endorsed a French-German proposal that Turkey begin negotiations with the EU in 2005 -- if it meets human rights conditions by 2004 that so far it has failed to meet.
Erdogan dismissed that timetable as a double standard on Monday and demanded a firm date. If, as expected, European leaders follow their foreign ministers' suggestion, Turkish disappointment could affect the level of cooperation with U.S. war plans, analysts here say.
"If Europe says no, you're going to see a backlash the likes of which you've never seen in Turkey before, and it's going to make the job of persuading Turkey on Iraq incredibly harder," said Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, where Erdogan delivered a speech Monday night.
"I can't emphasize this enough," Aliriza said. "Because to the Turks, it's not the United States as opposed to Europe. It's 'the West.' "
Turks have been weaned on the vision of the nation's founder, Kemal Ataturk, to look toward the West for progress and prosperity. But they complain of feeling poorly used by the forces they have longed to embrace. Almost 40 years after applying for membership in what was then the European Community, Turkey is at the end of its patience, Erdogan warned.
The United States, which championed Turkey's bid to join NATO decades ago, fares poorly in opinion polls here. In a recent survey of 44 countries by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, the percentage of Turks expressing a "favorable" view of the United States dropped more than in any other country with a benchmark for comparison -- skidding from 52 to 30 percent in just two years.
In a country where schoolchildren are taught they are Turks before anything else, more and more people say events are reminding them they are also Muslims.
"Although Turkey is a secular country, it's also a fact that the world is getting divided into two camps, and Turkey is 98 percent Muslim," said Ahmet Ugur, 53, a resort hotelier with a degree in political science. "And no matter how much Turkey wants to remain a secular country, the U.S. and the EU are pushing Turkey back into the other camp."
Such skepticism reduces the maneuvering room of the new government, which U.S. officials say has privately offered to cooperate against Iraq. Born from the ruins of earlier, openly Islamic parties, the ruling Justice and Development Party appears eager to reassure the United States that it has left behind religious politics and will be a reliable strategic partner.
Major strategic decisions will fall to Turkey's National Security Council, a mix of elected officials and top generals who have worked with the Pentagon in assembling war plans. But Turkey's constitution requires parliamentary approval of such moves as hosting foreign troops or dispatching Turkish forces abroad, both of which the Bush administration has privately requested, and politicians say they must answer to voters.
"We should get the okay of the people if there is war," said Omer Celik, an adviser to Erdogan.
Turkish officials said that, given the recession and memories of the Gulf War, money will be a key lubricant. The recession, triggered by last year's banking and currency crisis, is the worst since World War II. The Turkish lira lost two-thirds of its value and is now trading at 1.5 million to the dollar. The unofficial unemployment rate is 30 percent, and last year the economy shrank nearly 10 percent.
The two countries are deep into negotiating an aid package that would include steady reduction of $5 billion in military debt to the United States, assurances on an existing $16 billion recovery loan from the International Monetary Fund and limited trade preferences to boost Turkish exports.
But help with the EU would go the farthest, say diplomats and analysts. With Turkey yet to adopt the required human rights and political reforms, observers say the best hope for getting a firm date for beginning EU accession talks lies in a breakthrough to unite Cyprus, an island divided into Greek and Turkish areas since 1974.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan released a revised proposal
today that would allow Cyprus to join the EU as a united republic with
two "component states." News services reported that the most
reluctant party to the talks, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash,
dismissed the revisions. But he headed to Ankara for meetings as Erdogan
flew to see Annan in New York.
6. - The Times - "Turkey attacks EU for 'double standards'":
BRUSSELS / 11 December 2002 / by Richard Beeston and
Rory Watson
TURKEY’S new leader accused the European Union of double standards
yesterday for extending membership to states with chequered human rights
records while refusing to consider his country’s application.
Speaking before a visit to Washington today, where he is expected to win the support of President Bush for Ankara’s case, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he did not understand why the EU refused to recognise widespread reforms in Turkey over the past 18 months.
“The fact that Turkey has not got a negotiation date is a double standard in itself,” he said, after talks in Copenhagen with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister.
Mr Rasmussen said that Turkey would get a date for entry but first needed to fulfil its political reforms, particularly with respect to human rights and the treatment of minorities. “What we need to see now is clear implementation,” Mr Rasmussen said.
Copenhagen is hosting the EU summit on Thursday when the ten candidate countries are expected to finalise joining the EU by 2004. Washington, which is seeking to use Turkish military bases for any offensive against Iraq, has been lobbying Brussels to accept Ankara’s demands.
Mr Erdogan said Brussels operated one rule for European Christian countries and another for Turkey, which has been waiting decades to join the EU. “We see six countries that have not met all of the political criteria but which have negotiation dates,” Mr Erdogan, the leader of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, said.
He referred in particular to the poor treatment of some minorities, like the large ethnic Russian population in the Baltic state of Latvia, where Russian speakers are victims of discrimination, and the status of the Roma, or Gypsies, in central and eastern European countries.
Despite his tough stance, there were signs yesterday that a compromise between Turkey and the EU was still possible. France and Germany suggested last week that Turkey be given a provisional date to start entry talks in 2005 after a review to be conducted in 2004.
Yasar Yakis, the Turkish Foreign Minister, said in Brussels yesterday that Ankara might be satisfied with a date to begin entry talks next year.
“It is understandable that EU leaders want to see how the reforms are implemented,” he said. “We think that a period of six months would be sufficient to see that.”
In addition to the problem of Turkey’s entry, Poland and the Czech Republic also engaged in diplomatic brinkmanship yesterday by toughening their membership demands just days before negotiations are due to close.
“The Poles read out a whole list of items, point by point, where they are not satisfied with the Union’s offer. The problem is that when they see a figure, they automatically want it increased by 20 per cent,” one exasperated EU diplomat said.
Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Poland’s Foreign Minister, said afterwards that his Government’s hard line at the end of four years of negotiations had caught the EU by surprise.
Warsaw’s demands for higher cash transfers from Brussels, larger milk quotas and better treatment for maize farmers were not the only issues placed on the table at the last minute. The Czech Republic argued for better terms for potato starch producers and tried to increase from 90,300 to 130,300 the number of cattle covered by the EU’s suckler cow premium. Estonia also pressed for the right to continue hunting wild lynx and bears.
The demands frustrated the Danish Government, which is negotiating on behalf of the Union and is desperate to limit the summit agenda to the level of subsidies for farmers in central and eastern Europe and the overall cash transfers from Brussels to the new members.
Cyprus yesterday became the first of the ten candidate
countries aiming to join the EU on May 1, 2004, to indicate formally
that it could accept the membership terms. Slovakia also agreed to the
terms.
7. - The International Herald Tribune - "Inside the Turkey question - What kind of Europe?":
PARIS / 10 December 2002 / by William Pfaff 
Europe is at last, however circumspectly, even apprehensively, approaching
the primordial question of what it intends to become. Its governments
meet in Copenhagen this week to again address enlargement. Enlargement,
when achieved, will terminate the European Union as it currently exists.
Twenty-seven nations - the future EU membership when it has incorporated
the current candidates - cannot possibly function as the present 15-member
Union functions.
The 15 themselves are not the supple six with which today's European Union began: three big states (Federal Germany, France and Italy) plus three small ones (the Benelux three) collectively adding up to another big one, all six with equal votes.
But the Europeans only now are being compelled to face the changes that Europe confronts. In a moment of serendipitous inspiration, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president, was named by the European governments some months ago to supervise writing a European constitution, to be delivered in mid-2003. This was an exercise that no one until then had taken seriously.
Giscard instantly understood that he had been handed the means to rewrite "Europe." He understood that Europe had first to decide what it is, and only after that make the decision on how to govern itself in the future. Both questions have for years been obfuscated, instead of answered.
First is to decide what Europe is. Two Europes exist. Both have their origins in Greece of the classical period and in republican and imperial Rome, and have been shaped by Christianity. Western and Central Europe have also been formed by the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Revolution and Liberalism.
That has set them apart from Eastern Europe, ever since the political and religious schism in 1054 that divided Roman Catholic Europe from Byzantine or Orthodox Christianity, much of which subsequently fell under Turkish Muslim control.
Orthodox Europe became part of the EU when Greece joined, with Bulgaria, Romania and others expected to follow. But the issue of Turkish membership in the European Union is extremely controversial.
When Giscard reopened that question, it was a calculated provocation. He said that Muslim Turkey belongs to a great but different civilization, not that of Europe. He said that because of Turkey's size, its membership would unbalance the EU and its institutions. (Turkey has a rising population of some 70 million. Germany, the most populous present EU member, has a declining population of 82 million.) And if Turkey were admitted to the EU, he said, then Morocco and other non-European states, such as Lebanon and Israel, would reasonably expect to follow. The result "would be the end of the European Union."
Other EU officials have hastened to disagree. Turkey is an official EU candidate. There are many good arguments for its admittance. However, a final decision seemed conveniently remote until Giscard's statement. Now the issue can no longer be avoided.
The second basic question is whether Europe will be an integrated federation of countries or regions or a "Europe of nations," with mutual security guarantees and an independent foreign and security policy, or remain essentially an economic bloc, as Britain would prefer, or even serve as a kind of regional group within a reinforced Atlantic system, as the United States wants.
Giscard is forcing a decision on this, as well. His constitutional "skeleton" suggests an executive figure, perhaps a president, elected by the council (the decision-making body representing the member governments), who would become Europe's geopolitical representative to the world. That implies a Europe of nations, but closely associated.
This provoked Romano Prodi, president of the commission, the EU executive, to put forward constitutional proposals strengthening the commission's powers, and the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, to offer a constitutional proposal reflecting British conceptions of a loosely linked EU.
The Turkish issue is basic because it contains within it all the other questions of strengthening or deepening the Union. Answer it, and you implicitly answer the others.
Giscard is right: If Turkey is admitted to the EU, there will not be a strong "Europe." There will be an association of states, not all European, with close economic and social cooperation, restricted political integration and negligible collective weight on the international scene.
But perhaps that is all that Europeans today want from the EU. There have always been many who are committed to what could be called a "little Europe," who are afraid of a big Europe. The drawback is that little Europe is also dependent Europe, its future limited.
On the other side of the argument have always been those ambitious for Europe, anxious to affirm European influence in world affairs.
The issues are not going to be settled at Copenhagen,
but because of Giscard they can't be ignored.
8. - BBC - "Iraqi Kurds fear 'renewed genocide'":
Kurdish forces expect to be involved in any fighting
Northern Iraq / South Kurdistan / by Hiwa Osman / 10
December 2002
As he drove through the golden wheat plains of his region north
of the city of Mosul, Farhan Sharafani pointed to the front lines where
Iraqi Army rocket launchers and tanks were pointed towards his area.
"They are about 10 minutes away from here. Our people are very nervous," said Farhan.
"But we can't do anything about it."
Farhan is the head of the Sharafani tribe that number about 20,000 and controls about 50 villages near the Turkish border.
In Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, Farhan represents his area in the first parliament the Kurds have ever had.
He is currently debating a proposal for federalism, whereby the Kurds would be in control of their own region in Iraq.
The Kurds of Iraq have been enjoying an unprecedented era of self-rule in their region outside Baghdad's control since 1991.
They are now hoping for a Saddam-free federal and democratic Iraq.
As the drums of war between Washington and Baghdad beat louder, the prospects of a post-Saddam Iraq seem closer than ever.
Key allies
Outside the city of Sulaymaniyah, some 100 new volunteers of the Kurdish army, aged between 18 and 25, were singing the Martyrs Song while marching in the training ground.
These soldiers could be key allies for the US in any military scenario.
They can either be a fighting force alongside the allies, or provide a safe haven for fleeing refugees from the south.
"Undoubtedly we will have an important role," says Mustafa Sayyid Qadir, the deputy commander in chief of the Kurdish Army.
"But we are completely in the dark at the moment."
Qadir adds that there is also a large number of sympathetic Kurds and Arabs who live inside the Iraqi Government-controlled area.
"Our forces are ready. Our morale is high," he says.
In drawing a parallel with the northern alliance of Afghanistan, Qadir's deputy says, "Their forces are organised in a tribal way, our forces are centrally commanded.
"We also have better experience in capturing and keeping a place."
No protection
The Kurds seem to be supportive and ready for a military strike against Saddam. Their only concern is that Saddam Hussein might use chemical weapons against them.
Two things are difficult to find in the Kurdish region today - people who oppose military action, and people who have gas masks or any other protective gear from chemical weapons.
While the memories of chemical attacks remain vivid in their minds, the Kurds are extremely anxious about what could go wrong during and after a US-led attack.
Students in Salah al-Din University in Arbil, explained the Kurdish concerns.
"The majority of the people of Kurdistan welcome the military strike against Iraq," says Ali, a student at the English language department. "It is vital that the US keeps its promises of protection."
"We are in the range of Saddam's artillery," said Shirin. "If there is a military action against Iraq, we the Kurds will be the first people to suffer from it," she added.
'Unspeakable tyranny'
Kurdish leaders say they are mindful of the risks and they would not commit themselves to anything without calculating the risks.
"I can only hope that the international community would not leave the Kurds defenceless in the face of renewed genocide," said Barham Salih, the Prime Minister of the PUK-led government in Sulaymaniyah.
"It would be unspeakable, unforgivable for the world to let tyranny revisit this defenceless population, especially after all that we have been through and after all our efforts in trying to put our lives back together," he added.
Before continuing the tour in Farhan's area, his cousin recalled "the good old days" when he could visit Mosul with his son, who was later killed by the Iraqi Government.
"I hope Mr Bush gets rid of him [Saddam]," he
said. "Even if he was to use chemical weapons, it would be his
last time to use them."