Destabilizing
Force
In
Northern Iraq, A Rebel Sanctuary
Bedevils the U.S.
- Nord Curdistan iracheno, vicino al confine con Iraq, ci
sono “santuari” del PKK, dove si addestrano circa 3 mila guerrriglieri curdi –
nati in Turchia (giornata tipica: istruzione politica il mattino, addestramento
militare il pomeriggio, calcio e pallavolo, TV satellite Roj TV – dalla
Danimarca). Culto di Oçalan, con ritratti dappertutto, anche su grande blocco
di cemento. - Turchia chiede vengano cacciati, altrimenti
minaccia attacco militare. Erdogan oggi a Washington solleverà la questione con
Bush. - Iran, che sarebbe stato oggetto di incursioni
dal curdistan iracheno, avrebbe già bombardato campi PKK in Irak. - Governo Curdistan li protegge di fatto (d’altra
parte sono presenti già da metà anni ’80). - USA hanno nominato generale in pensione dell’Air
Force, J. Ralston, quale “Inviato Speciale per Contrastare il PKK” (definito
“terrorista”). USA cercano di evitare conflitto tra i due alleati Turchia e
Curdistan e ulteriore destabilizzazione dell’Irak. - Guerriglia e repressione nel Curdistan turco (15
milioni ab. Città Diyarbakir con 1 milione) ha fatto 30 mila morti anni
’80 e ’90. Scorso luglio sono riesposi scontri, con uccisione di 15 militari
turchi da parte PKK e successiva repressione. Ora PKK ha dichiarato nuovo
cessate il fuoco, dopo appello di Oçalan in tal senso dal carcere. - Curdistan iracheno, 5 m ab., assume sempre più i
connotati dell’indipendenza – e di punto di riferimento per i curdi turchi e
iraniani. - M. Balzani, presidente della regione, l’1/9 ha bandito la bandiera
irachena (“simbolo della repressione”): rimangono solo le bandiere curde. - Legge sul petrolio approvata dal
parlamento curdo sancisce che le future entrate petrolifere non dovranno essere
divise con Baghdad. - Il confine curdistan/resto dell’Irak è
stato rafforzato con trincee ed è presidiato dai Peshmerga. - Al tempo stesso gov. Curdistan interessati ad evitare
scontro con Turchia, con la quale c’è interscambio di 3 MD $. - Al Maliki (premier Irak)ha promesso di chiudere
gli uffici PKK in Irak. - PKK ha rinunciato all’indipendenza dalla Turchia
[e a uno Stato di tutti i curdi] e si dichiara disposto a una forma di
autonomia all’interno della Turchia. Turchia chiede depongano le armi.
In Wake of
Kurdish Attacks
Against
Turkey, Washington
Is Caught
Between Allies
‘Our State
in the Mountains’
By PHILIP
SHISHKIN
October 2,
2006; Page A1
QANDIL
MOUNTAIN RANGE, Iraq — Kurdish guerrillas have used the remote mountains of
northern Iraq as a base to attack Turkey for years. Now their presence has
become a thorny problem for Washington.
Thousands
of Kurdish fighters move openly in dozens of camps spread throughout Qandil’s
scrubby mountainsides and tree-covered ravines. A day’s hike to the north lies
Turkey, where most of these militants were born and where they face terrorism
charges for fighting for Kurdish autonomy. Here in northern Iraq, with grenades clipped
to the belts of their matching olive-green outfits, the guerrillas conduct
combat drills, restock arms or watch satellite television. A few months ago
they honored their leader by painting his image on a giant concrete slab they
poured onto a hillside. It is visible from miles away.
"We
have our own state in the mountains," says Farman, the 42-year-old area
commander whose neck bears the indented scar of a bullet wound. Like other
militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, he introduced
himself by first name only.
The
guerrillas’ enclave in northern Iraq is at the center of a growing
diplomatic storm. As the U.S. begins to exert pressure on Iraq to rein in
the anti-Turkey fighters, it finds itself caught between two key allies.
On one side is Iraqi Kurdistan, which supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq and
whose leaders have deep ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. On the other is
Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a Muslim
democracy, whose leaders say they are committed to destroying the PKK.
Stakes for
Washington are high. Iraqi Kurdistan is the safest part of Iraq. Armed
conflict between Turkey and Kurdish fighters would prove calamitous, adding
another front to the bloody Iraqi battlefield and further stretching U.S. and
Iraqi security forces. Turkey, which maintains tens of thousands of troops
on its border with Iraq, said this summer it is drawing up plans to attack the
guerrillas’ positions.
For the
first time since these fighters began using Iraq as a base more than two
decades ago, Washington has appointed a high-level diplomat to address the
crisis. In late August, it named retired Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston
to the post of Special Envoy for Countering the PKK. Gen. Ralston, a former
NATO top commander, took a whirlwind tour through Turkish and Iraqi capitals in
September, pressing the U.S. point that Iraqi territory shouldn’t be used as a
PKK haven. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will raise the issue
with President George W. Bush when the two meet in Washington today.
Gen.
Ralston’s tour comes after a summer of heightened violence. In one week in
July, PKK militants killed at least 15 Turkish soldiers and police. A month
later, explosions in three Turkish cities killed three Turkish citizens and
injured 60 civilians, including foreign tourists. The attacks against civilians
were claimed by Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, which Turkish and Western officials
say operates under the auspices of the PKK.
On
Saturday, the PKK promised to halt attacks, the fifth time the group has
declared a cease-fire. However, the decades-old conflict remains far from defused. Past truces
have led to lulls in violence, followed by intensified fighting. Turkey
immediately dismissed the cease-fire. Violence in the Kurdish area of Turkey
continued yesterday.
Marxism and
Nationalism
The Kurds,
who number about 25 million and speak their own language, have never had
a country of their own. Most of them live in contiguous border stretches in
Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. The majority — about 15 million — live in
Turkey, which has historically denied them minority rights such as cultural
recognition or Kurdish-language education.
Since its birth
in Turkey in 1974, the PKK, or Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, has employed
a violent blend of Marxism and nationalism. Its guerrillas consolidated
support in the countryside, ruthlessly attacking Turks and Kurds alike who
stood in the way of their goal of establishing an independent Kurdistan. The
conflict with the Turkish military led to an estimated 30,000 deaths in the
1980s and the 1990s.
Pressured
inside Turkey, the PKK found a haven in northern Iraq in the mid-1980s. Iraqi
Kurdish leaders, fighting their own rebellion against Baghdad, allowed the PKK
to enter northern Iraq in a gesture of pan-Kurdish solidarity. Iraqi Kurds
were also among the region’s strongest supporters of the U.S. decision to
depose Saddam Hussein, who is currently on trial in Baghdad on charges of
genocide against Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.
Three
guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in northern Iraq’s Qandil
mountains. Behind them, a structure housing a television room and a small
library.
In the
aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which Turkey opposed, Iraqi
Kurdistan has strengthened its autonomy. The home to five million Kurds, the
Iraqi region has gradually accumulated the trappings of sovereignty from
Baghdad’s rule, serving as an inspirational example to Kurds across the border
in Turkey and Iran.
In early
September, Massoud Barzani, the region’s president, outlawed the Iraqi national
flag on the grounds that it symbolizes repression of Kurds under Mr. Hussein.
Only Kurdish flags, marked with a bright yellow sun in the middle, now remain.
The region’s parliament just approved a petroleum law that stipulates that
revenue from future oil production doesn’t have to be shared with Baghdad. (Baghdad has criticized the
region’s drive to set its own oil policy.) Boundaries between Kurdistan and
the rest of Iraq are reinforced with trenches and patrolled by units of the
regional government’s own military force, the Peshmerga.
In
addressing the guerrillas sheltering within their borders, Iraqi Kurdistan’s
officials find themselves with dual allegiances. While Washington classifies
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as a terrorist group, Iraqi Kurd leaders view them
as freedom fighters. Masrur Barzani, the head of Iraqi Kurdistan’s
intelligence branch and the son of the regional president, says Kurds
"existed here long before" the Turkic tribes from Central Asia began
their conquest of modern-day Turkey a millennium ago. Jafar Mustafa Ali, an
Iraqi Kurd in charge of many of the Peshmerga units, suggests the PKK fighters
are cut from the same nationalist cloth as Iraq’s anti-Saddam Kurdish
guerrillas. "The PKK asks for the rights of its people," he says.
"Why should somebody be called a terrorist for that?"
At the
same time, the region’s administrators are eager to avoid the sort of violence
afflicting the rest of Iraq. As northern Iraq looks to start pumping its own
oil, it will require cooperation from Turkey and Iran to ship it to
international clients. Already, bilateral trade between Turkey and northern
Iraq has grown to an estimated $3 billion last year, according to Turkish and Iraqi officials. A
peaceful resolution of the PKK issue will also help the area attract foreign
investment.
According
to Turkish and Western intelligence, some 3,000 guerrillas live in Iraq’s
Qandil mountains at any given time. A smaller force is based on the Turkish
side of the border. Western and Turkish intelligence officials say guerrillas
train and acquire weapons in Iraq. The camps also serve as
rest-and-recuperation sites for rebels who have fought in Turkey, especially
during harsh winters when skirmishes usually die down. The PKK says it runs a
hidden hospital here that treats fighters wounded in clashes inside Turkey.
A typical
guerrilla is Semad, a 29-year-old who grew up in the southeastern
Turkish city of Diyarbakir and later moved with his family to Istanbul. Two of
his older brothers died in the fighting with Turkish security forces, and Semad
says he started helping the PKK at the age of nine, delivering messages,
leaflets and food in the militant underground. He worked briefly as a postman
in Istanbul. By the time he turned 18 he walked off into the mountains and
joined the fighters, taking the name of one of his dead brothers as a
nom-de-guerre.
Life for
Semad in the Qandil camps follows a well-established routine: political
education in the morning, military training in the afternoon, then soccer,
volleyball or ping-pong. The guerrillas watch satellite television,
particularly Roj TV, a Denmark-based channel sympathetic to PKK’s cause.
Devotion to
the group’s Marxist founder, Abdullah Öcalan (pronounced O-dja-lan),
borders on cultish. Mr. Öcalan was captured in 1999, and is currently serving a
life sentence in a Turkish island prison. His portrait is ubiquitous in the
camps, on bright yellow banners or surrounded with flowers. His severe,
moustached visage is painted in bold blue, white and black on a concrete slab,
some 8 feet by 20 feet, above one of the camps. Semad has an image of Mr.
Öcalan on the screen of his mobile phone.
On a quiet
day at the camps, the wooden hovels, tents and clearings brim with domesticity,
though alcohol and dating are banned. On a recent sunny morning, Saria, a
21-year-old Kurdish woman from Syria who joined the PKK five years ago, watered
a patch of saplings. A male guerrilla chopped firewood. Inside one of the
shacks, in a wooden bookcase straining under the weight of books written by Mr.
Öcalan, there are two well-thumbed volumes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s "The Lord
of the Rings" in Turkish, the language most guerrillas here speak fluently
and use in conversations alongside Kurdish.
The camps’
relaxed feel belies their occupants’ serious mission. "Our position now is
self-defense war everywhere" against the Turkish military, the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party current leader, Murat Karaylan, said in a middle-of-the-night
interview early last month in Qandil. Mr. Karaylan, a pistol holster under his
vest, has been a PKK member since 1978 and leads a clandestine existence
shuttling among mountain camps. His arrest and extradition are among Turkey’s
main demands. "If necessary, we can escalate [the war] four to five times,"
he said.
Washington’s
envoy, Gen. Ralston, did not speak with the PKK. Last month in
northern Iraq, Ankara and Baghdad, he met with northern Iraq President Barzani,
Turkish and Iraqi prime ministers, and U.S., Turkish and Iraqi military
officials. He urged Iraqi leaders to put pressure on the guerrillas, asking
them to close PKK offices and adopt other, as yet undisclosed, measures against
the group. "Clearly, this is not an easy task," Gen. Ralston told
reporters upon his return to Washington late last month.
In his
interview, Mr. Karaylan said he had been pressed by Iraqi Kurdish officials to
halt attacks on Turkish forces. On Thursday, the imprisoned Mr. Öcalan
appealed to PKK guerrillas to call a cease-fire, asking them to fight back only
if attacked by Turkish forces. In a news conference on Saturday, field leader
Mr. Karaylan announced that the guerrillas would call a truce.
The Turkish
government called instead for full disarmament. "A cease-fire is done
between states," Prime Minister Erdogan told a Turkish television
channel last week. "A terrorist organization must lay down its arms."
On Sunday, hours after the truce took effect, Turkish soldiers killed a PKK
fighter in Southeastern Turkey, not far from the Iraqi border.
Under
pressure from the U.S. and Turkey, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki,
a Shiite Arab, has promised to close PKK offices in Iraq. The Kurdistan
Workers’ Party, though, doesn’t have many offices in Iraq, and prefers to
operate in seclusion from the northern mountains. Iraqi forces would find it
challenging to dismantle the camps: Baghdad does not have sway over Iraqi
Kurdistan’s Peshmerga security forces, who would be unlikely to turn their
weapons against fellow Kurds.
Turkish
officials say they are prepared to wait for the diplomacy to run its course
before considering military options. But one Turkish government adviser
says, "We won’t wait too long." Iran, which has also
suffered attacks from Kurdish separatists linked to the PKK and fighting out of
the same Iraqi mountains, shelled northern Iraq earlier this year, according
to officials in Iraqi Kurdistan. Iranian officials deny this.
Attacking
With Rocks
While
northern Iraq has assumed importance as a PKK haven, the root causes of the
group’s appeal to some Turkish Kurds can be found in the Turkish Southeast.
The area still reels from the violence of the past two decades. Major riots
erupted in the city of Diyarbakir in March after several PKK fighters
were killed by Turkish forces. Thousands of young Kurds set up roadblocks,
trashed banks and shops and attacked police with rocks. In some parts of
Diyarbakir, a city of one million residents, unemployment runs as
high as 70%.
Partly
under pressure from the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, Turkish
officials have been trying to address some Kurdish demands for greater rights. Broadcasting
in Kurdish, as well as Kurdish-language classes, have been allowed, though both
activities are still tightly controlled. A few years ago, the PKK
dropped its demand for an independent Kurdistan, saying it would be content
with some form of autonomy inside Turkey. The government wants to channel
investment to the region and now openly acknowledges that it has long neglected
its Kurdish citizens and denied their identity. While these are small
steps, they would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.
"One
of the reasons we were fighting was to provide the conditions for greater
cultural and language rights. At the time it was necessary," says Hasan
Seker, a one-time teacher in a village school who joined the PKK in the 1980s,
fought, lost an index finger, was captured and spent nine years in prison. He
now runs a cultural center in Diyarbakir promoting Kurdish music, literature
and language. Though the center faces restrictions, he says the difference is
obvious. "It’s serious progress. We came from the point of ‘Kurds don’t
exist’ to this point," he says. "Of course it gives us hope."
Write to Philip Shishkin at
philip.shishkin@wsj.com1