29
January 2003
2. "Iraqi Kurds warn against Turkish military intervention", a senior Iraqi Kurdish official warned against Turkish intervention in northern Iraq, saying that autonomy for the breakaway Iraqi Kurds would help stabilize the region, Turkish NTV television reported Tuesday.
3. "Turkey expects second revision in UN peace plan for Cyprus", the United Nations might revise for a second time a plan to reunify Cyprus, Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said on Tuesday, according to the Anatolia news agency.
4. "Turkey braces for refugee flood", 450,000 Iraqi Kurdish refugees flooded Turkey in 1991. Another Gulf war may spur a second exodus. There were all sorts of reasons to run.
5. "Kurds want federal government", according to Kurdish politicians, Turkish and Arab media have hyped the "threat" of an independent Kurdistan. As a result, the international community has been distracted from the actual goal of the Iraqi opposition – a federal system within a united Iraq.
6. "Cowboys Welcome in Kurdistan", during their 12 years of freedom, the Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian inhabitants of this land have rebuilt most of the 4,000 villages Saddam Hussein's troops bombed and bulldozed into oblivion.
1. - The Kurdish Observer - "If you do not take step, then resign":
Firat Aydinkaya, lawyer of KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan, stated that they have not been able to see his client for 8 weeks, calling Justice Minister Cemil Cicek to resign in case that there would be no visit next week.
VAN, Turkey / 27 January 2003
A gathering in DEHAP Van premises was attended by Firat Aydinkaya and Mehmet Ete, both lawyers of Century’s Law Bureau. At the gathering with about 250 people, Firat Aydinkaya stated that the isolation imposed on Ocalan was not individual but “a policy for intimidation against the whole Kurdish people”.
“His ties with the Kurdish people is tried to be broken”
Lawyer Aydinkaya said that the isolation was gradual and the first stage of it was isolation and torture and than leaving the individual to die. The lawyer pointed out that Ocalan had been living under grave conditions. “The main aim of it is to break his ties with the Kurdish people,” said Aydinkaya.
“Cicek, resign!”
The lawyer stressed that the Justice Minister consented to their request for a meeting only after 20 days and then refused the reality. Aydinkaya had this to say: “There is a statement in the Constitution dealing with defence of rights. But what your are doing is against the Constitution. If you do not take a concrete step about his right to periodical visits, then resign.”
“It is related with his identity”
And lawyer Mehmet Ete stated that on the eve of a possible Iraq war,
the lack of visits were meaningful, saying that problems were related
with Ocalan’s identity and the recent process. “The system
assumes a provocative role. The fact that AKP leader Tayyip Erdogan
has said ‘There is no such question as Kurdish question’
is a product of denial policies,” said Ete.
2. - AFP - "Iraqi Kurds warn against Turkish military intervention":
ANKARA / January 28, 2003
A senior Iraqi Kurdish official warned against Turkish intervention
in northern Iraq, saying that autonomy for the breakaway Iraqi Kurds
would help stabilize the region, Turkish NTV television reported Tuesday.
"As the people of Iraq we -- Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Assyrians
-- see it as our most natural right to determine what kind of regime
will be established in Iraq," said Barham Salih of the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Rome.
If Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein were toppled, he said, "there
must be no intervention aimed at limiting our right to freely determine
what kind of a system we want."
Turkey already has troops stationed in northern Iraq and has threatened
to use force if local Kurds move towards independence, which it fears
could fuel the secessionist ambitions of its own Kurdish population.
The PUK and its rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), have
run northern Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, under the protection of
a US- and British-enforced no-fly zone.
They are among the Iraqi opposition forces whose support the United
States would seek in any military operation.
"One of the main reasons for the chaos and uncertainty in the
region is the dictatorial policies the Baghdad regime has followed
for years," said Salih, whose faction advocates Kurdish autonomy
within a looser, federal Iraq.
"We will all work to build a new Iraq ... Turkey should wait
and see what the new Iraq will be," he said. "A democratic
and federal system will be the best thing for the Iraqi people. In
this way, confidence, peace and stability will also prevail in Iraq's
relations with Turkey."
Fear of Kurdish independence is a major factor behind Turkey's opposition
to a possible US-led war against Iraq.
Ankara also believes regional turmoil would damage its economy, already
facing financial crisis. It has nevertheless reluctantly entered into
talks with Washington, its most valuable ally, over its contribution
to a possible war.
Salih said the departure of the Baghdad regime had become inevitable
and urged the Iraqi leadership to step down peacefully.
"In my opinion, regime change is now inevitable. It is no longer
possible for the international community and the United States to
live with the current regime," he said.
"I pray that the current regime does not bring us face-to-face
with a new military confrontation and steps down peacefully.
"But I believe that this regime will not shy away from trying
every way to stay in power, and that is why I think we are advancing
towards a military conflict," he said.
3.
- AFP - "Turkey expects second revision in UN peace plan for
Cyprus":
ANKARA / January 28, 2003
The United Nations might revise for a second time a plan to reunify
Cyprus, Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said on Tuesday, according
to the Anatolia news agency.
Referring to talks between UN envoy Alvaro de Soto and Turkish officials
in Ankara, Yakis said: "I hope he is not listening to all these
(the Turkish views) just to keep them in his files. I guess a new
plan will be formulated."
Both the Turkish and Greek communities of Cyprus have raised objections
to certain terms of the reunification plan, which was submitted to
the two sides in November.
The United Nations has already revised the proposal once. De Soto
told reporters earlier that the UN had not yet made any firm decision
to revise the plan for a second time.
The United Nations is pressing for a reunification deal by February
28, a deadline set to ensure that a united Cyprus signs an accession
agreement with the European Union in April to join the bloc in 2004.
The EU says it will admit only the internationally-recognized Greek
Cypriot south if the island is not reunified in time.
The Cyprus conflict is seen as a major stumbling since 1974, when
Turkey seized its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered
coup in Nicosia seeking to unite Cyprus with Greece.
Speaking after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul later
Tuesday, de Soto said was "encouraged" by the approach of
the Turkish leader.
"He also believes that this problem should be resolved and that
a solution should be found before February 28," de Soto said.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which came to power
last November, has been more enthusiastic for a Cyprus settlement
than previous Turkish governments.
De Soto was expected to meet with AKP chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
an outspoken supporter of a speedy solution, on Wednesday.
Erdogan has often criticized Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash
for his hardline natinalist stance on the UN plan.
Harsh exchanges between the two men have thrown doubts over the traditional
solidarity between Ankara, which has propped up Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus for decades, and Denktash.
4. - The Christian Science Monitor - "Turkey braces for refugee flood":
450,000 Iraqi Kurdish refugees flooded Turkey in 1991. Another Gulf war may spur a second exodus. There were all sorts of reasons to run.
ANKARA AND DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY / 29 January 2003
by Ilene R. Prusher
It was March 1991 when the announcement came: Saddam Hussein's army would descend on northern Iraq to fight against Kurdish guerrillas, and local leaders warned civilians to get out of harm's way.
Then there was the rumor that Mr. Hussein would drop a chemical weapon on Sulaymaniyah, as he had three years earlier on the Kurds of Halabja.
That's when Miran and his family tumbled into the car and headed for the mountainous border with Iran, a 10-minute drive that took seven hours inside the crush of refugees trying to escape. They spent two weeks out in the open, struggling to stay warm, and scrambling for water to make formula milk to keep Miran's baby sister alive.
"People were dying, crying, shouting, mothers looking for their children and brothers for their brothers," recalls Miran, an Iraqi Kurd who lives in Ankara. He asks that his last name not be used out of fear for the safety of his family, who still live in northern Iraq.
"We thought it was the end of the world. When you lock that door and leave, you don't know if you're ever going to see your home again."
That was in the messy aftermath of the Gulf War, when Kurds who rose up against the Iraqi regime were met with the helicopter gunships and ground troops of an angry Hussein. Today, the map of Iraq is significantly different, as is the kind of war the Bush administration would like to wage against the Iraqi regime. But Turks, Kurds, aid agencies, and neighboring countries fear that such a war could spark another refugee crisis - one that would reopen a whole host of related political and economic problems.
Many Kurds say another war in Iraq will be a new humanitarian disaster. For Turks, the possibility of an influx of Iraqi Kurdish refugees raises other concerns, from the high cost of aiding desperate people to the political risks of allowing thousands of Kurds into restive southeastern Turkey. Iran and Syria harbor similar unease about the effects on their own Kurdish populations.
Indeed, anxiety over an unpredictable outcome of a US-led war against Iraq is a key concern that binds Turkey with some of the countries it invited to the antiwar conference it hosted in Istanbul late last week, including Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt.
Yesterday, the US sent a State Department delegation to discuss plans for dealing with refugees and other humanitarian issues that might arise from a war against Iraq. "It's an issue that's definitely on our screen, and of course it is a concern," says a US official. "We recognize that it's one of Turkey's concerns about an operation, and it has been part of the military discussions as well."
When Turkish officials look back more than a decade to the first Gulf War, they recall some 450,000 Iraqi Kurdish refugees who climbed over snow-capped mountains to cross into Turkey. Another 1.3 million went to Iran. In Turkey, just 20,000 tents were on hand, say officials from UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), and the Turkish government found itself scrambling to shelter and feed far more people than it anticipated. Equally important, among those refugees were thousands of militants from the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), who Turkey says sneaked across the border and jacked up the violence between Kurdish separatists and Turkish forces. A recent re-emergence of fighting in the mostly Kurdish southeast raises fresh concerns here that Turkey has not seen the end of Kurdish separatist warfare.
"If there will be a stream of refugees again, we will stop them before they come to Turkey," says A. Cemil Serhadli, the governor of Diyarbakir, the main city in southeastern Turkey. If the Kurds can't be contained and housed within Iraq itself, "then a second round of camps will be constructed in border towns of Turkey." As a last resort, he says, Diyarbakir will serve as a transit point for refugees.
UN officials from Geneva, meanwhile, have arrived in Turkey and are searching for locations for Iraqi refugees. Turkish media have reported that government and humanitarian officials here have plans to erect camps at 13 sites in Iraq and five in Turkey, citing a document that was formulated and signed by Turkey's former prime minister, Bulent Ecevit. Turkey will prepare for the possibility of accommodating up to 276,000 refugees, the document said.
Although Turkish officials say they cannot estimate how much caring for refugees would cost, the potential need to deal with a refugee crisis has figured into ongoing discussions with US officials over the Pentagon's request to use Turkish facilities in a war.
Were Turkey to prevent refugees on the run from entering its borders, however, it could come under international criticism. "Our position is that the border should remain open for those seeking asylum," says Metin Corabatir, the UNHCR representative in Ankara. "The right to seek asylum is a fundamental human right, outlined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights," and reiterated in the 1951 convention on the status of refugees.
"If there is a refugee crisis, without the permission of any government it is the right of UNHCR to have access to an endangered populations," Mr. Corabatir says. "In order to do that, we are now positioning food and non-food items." Red Crescent officials in southeastern Turkey say that they are also stocking up on tents and food, promising that - should another refugee crisis occur - they will be better prepared this time.
But some say that there will no reason for the Kurds to flee. In an invasion of the sort that US officials envision Hussein's armed forces would be neutralized so quickly that he would not be able to strike northern Iraq.
"There will be no mass exodus like we witnessed in 1991,"
says Safeen Dizayee, the Ankara representative of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), one of the two main parties now in control of northern
Iraq. "Today, there is a good Kurdish administration in the region.
There are 80,000 Kurdish troops who can put up a good line of defense,"
he adds.
5. - Gulf News - "Kurds want federal government":
Arbil, Northern Iraq / 28 January 2003
by Tanya Goudsouzian
Since the United States announced its intention to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussain, the Kurdish question has served as a trump card for many players in the game.
According to Kurdish politicians, Turkish and Arab media have hyped the "threat" of an independent Kurdistan. As a result, the international community has been distracted from the actual goal of the Iraqi opposition – a federal system within a united Iraq.
The idea of an independent Kurdistan is a nagging concern for Turkey, whose interests in the region involve sketchy territorial claims on oil-rich Kirkuk and Mosul, as well as a desire to suppress irredentist ambitions among its own Kurdish population.
While Syria has encouraged Iraqi opposition groups, and Iran has absorbed more than 100,000 Kurdish refugees, neither country would be keen on the idea of an independent Kurdistan for fear that it may inspire their own Kurdish populations.
For its part, the Baghdad regime has also fanned the fire in order to rile up support among disenchanted Iraqis against an "uppity" ethnic group.
The reality, however, is that plans to carve out an independent Kurdistan from Iraqi territory have been put on the back burner. Kurdish politicians in all camps insist that the Americans have made no promises to the Kurds in exchange for their assistance in overthrowing Saddam Hussain.
In spite of ongoing speculation over the role Kurdish militias will play in the process, they reject comparisons to the latest American campaign in Afghanistan, wherein the Northern Alliance was used to drive out the ruling Taliban.
For decades, the Kurdish leadership has pursued its national dream of full-fledged independence, and later autonomy. But reality bites, as they say in America.
Taking into account economic and geo-strategic realities, the Kurds of northern Iraq now see that their best bet would be to install a "democratic, pluralistic and federal" system in Baghdad.
"The goals of each nation change throughout their history, depending on the outcome of their experiences. We had an experiment with autonomy, and it failed. More than 4,000 villages were destroyed, and we suffered an attack by chemical and biological weapons," said Dr Roush Nouri Shaways, Speaker of Parliament in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
"A federal system would work better for us. If we don't have a say in the central government, then the central government could do whatever it likes. If we are part of the decision-making caucus, then it would not be so easy for the government to issue decrees against one segment of the population."
The shift in the Kurdish national agenda, from autonomy to federalism, was agreed in parliament by all parties on October 4, 1992, and a paper was drafted on the make-up of a future government in Baghdad.
"What we want is a federal system, like in Belgium," said Dr Shaways. "A strong central government does not meet the needs of the population of Iraq, nor does it appeal to our neighbouring countries."
At present, the Kurds in northern Iraq enjoy a level of autonomy, which only just falls short of full-fledged statehood. They have their own currency, army, elected parliament, and representation abroad.
If (or when) Saddam is erased from the scene, the Kurdish leadership is willing to make a number of concessions, such as the handover of its militias to a new central government in Baghdad, conforming to the currency mandated by the Iraqi Central Bank, and giving up its foreign representation.
One vital issue is how the Kurdish local administration would be able to meet its operational costs once it submits to the authority of a federal government. Most of Arbil's revenues stem from the smuggling of oil through the Ibrahim Khalil border with Turkey.
According to a PUK official, 25 per cent of the proceeds from the daily 600,000-litre shipment is pocketed by the Arbil government, and another 25 per cent by Saddam's son Uday.
In recent months, however, there has been a lull in the economy of Kurdish-ruled areas in northern Iraq as a result of prevailing tensions, and the strengthening "Swiss dinar".
Dr Shaways claims the regional government has been raking in less than five per cent of its erstwhile revenues from Ibrahim Khalil with Turkey tightening the noose. "Two years ago, we had much less problems," he said.
As part of a "united Iraq", all sources of revenue will be handed over to the federal government, but the Kurdish leadership expects to receive "a just share of national revenues, which is commensurate to our population", said the speaker.
The United Nations Oil-for-Food programme currently allocates 13 per cent to the northern region – a figure Dr Shaways considers "unrealistic". He cited "25 per cent" as a more suitable share.
"If the percentage of aid and revenue increases in the future
to better reflect the size of the Kurdish population, the Kurdish
leadership will not have any problems in meeting the needs of the
population," he said.
6. - The Washington Post - "Cowboys Welcome in Kurdistan":
SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq / January 29, 2003
by Mary Ann Smothers Bruni
As American troops move into the Persian Gulf and George W. Bush wags an angry finger at Saddam Hussein, a nervous euphoria is descending on Iraqi Kurdistan, the enclave in northern Iraq protected by the "no-fly" zone and governed by Iraq's rebel Kurdistan Regional Government. The feeling is very different from that in Europe, where the American president is constantly being admonished for his "cowboy" tendencies.
"Occupy us -- please!" a Kurdish man on the street demands of an American visitor. Indeed, the main fear of Iraqi Kurds I spoke to is that Washington will not attack.
"Iraqi officials warn us that Bush is all talk, that America will not invade," says Ismet Aguid, a former Iraqi foreign service officer. "But we remain optimistic."
During their 12 years of freedom, the Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian inhabitants of this land have rebuilt most of the 4,000 villages Saddam Hussein's troops bombed and bulldozed into oblivion. They have also created at least the semblance of democracy, complete with elections and a representative parliament.
They have laced the country with highways and transformed Sulaymaniyah, Irbil and Dohuk into modern cities with multiple newspapers, traffic jams and omnipresent Internet cafes. The people are warm and well fed, thanks to the Iraqi-U.N. oil-for-food program.
But with Turkish tanks hovering above Dohuk, an Islamic militant group shelling Halabja and Saddam Hussein's troops patrolling their southern border, Kurdistan residents realize all too well how fragile their beautiful new world is. That's why they hope that the "top secret" American airstrip near Sulaymaniyah will be put to use soon.
Not only Iraqi Kurds but also Iranians, Turks and even Baghdadis are literally betting that American victory will be swift and total. Speculation on Kurdistan's currency has caused it to spiral dangerously out of control. The local currency -- the 1991 Iraqi "Swiss-print" dinar -- trades at 7.6 to the dollar today, up from 15 just last June. The currency is disappearing from circulation, bringing the market and much-needed U.N. reconstruction projects to a standstill. The dinar travels to traders on the Iranian, Turkish and Iraqi government borders. The 12-year-old tattered and taped currency notes that stay home all too often disintegrate or end up sewn into mattresses.
A young friend explains: "We buy the 'Swiss print' for the future -- like Europeans buy 2006 World Cup tickets. When America frees Iraq of Saddam, each original Iraqi dinar will be worth $3 again."
And what does he think backs these dinars?
"The oil fields of Kirkuk," he answers.
But, of course, speculators will be out of luck if President Bush doesn't deliver soon. Mam Rostam, who led victorious troops into Kirkuk during the 1991 Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein, says Bush can do just that. "We talk to Iraqi troops on the front daily," he said. "They sell us guns. They won't fight for Saddam." Rostam fears only two things: chemical weapons and the possibility that "America will use us and leave us."
The Kurds, world-class survivors, are planning for such worst-case scenarios and working to stock emergency camps inside their borders. But they lack protective materials, medical supplies and the trained doctors who would be needed in case of chemical attack. Abudel Razaq Faeli, minister of relations and cooperation in Sulaymaniyah, fears that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and others will use the $37 million granted for emergency relief to set up camps outside Iraq. "How can someone hit with chemical weapons move all the way to Iran?" he asks. "The UNHCR will be receiving refugees in coffins."
Still, a strong vein of opinion about war -- and its timing -- is represented by 83-year-old Jalal Sideek Bawari, who lives in a mountain village near the Turkish border. "Now is better," he says.
The oil-for-food program has given Bawari's village a road and a new school. Before they had the road, villagers were completely self-sufficient. They planted or tended everything they ate. They carved their forks and spoons out of wood. But they were invincible.
He applauds the comfort and varied new products that "the market economy" brings. But he worries about what will happen if the Kurds' Western-backed experiment fails. "We will die," he worries. "Kurds have forgotten how to live on our own."
Mary Ann Smothers Bruni, author of "Journey Through Kurdistan,"
is in Iraq writing a book on the development of Iraqi Kurdistan since
1991.