Turkey is right to fight

Turkey is right to fight for an end to the PKK

Norman Stone

27 October 2007

The PKK must be stopped if Turks and Kurds are to make peace

Northern Iraq is now in effect a Kurdish state. It is (or was) divided into two tribal federations, which sometimes fought each other: the north-western one under Mesut Barzani, on the Turkish border, and a north-eastern one under Celal Talabani, who is now formally the president of Iraq. In the old days, their relations with the PKK and with Saddam Hussein himself were tense or co-operative, as and when. The PKK was dropped by Barzani, and then co-operated with Saddam: the pattern was unpredictable. But now, with Saddam over, there is indeed a Kurdish state entity, and the Americans naturally patronise it, as the only large area in Iraq that works. Money pours in, and the Turkish lira has shot up in value even against the euro because $50 million flows back into Turkey every day, to be exchanged. And north Iraq has oil — a very great deal of it. The sums of money involved are huge, and there is even a suspicion in Turkey that the Kurdish chieftains are stirring up trouble in the hope of pushing oil prices up to $150 per barrel. The Kurdish entity is booming — five universities, endless government buildings, roads, police, etc. And this particularly enriches Barzani, now the Americans’ friend. Into Barzani’s region, through the Habur border-crossing, come, every year, 500,000 lorries, most of them Turkish (or Kurdish-Turkish) and Barzani levies a tax on each of them. There is an element of drugs-smuggling, probably uncontrollable, though every week the Istanbul police find a cache, and that, too, no doubt adds something to the strength of the Turkish currency.

With money of this scale, Barzani can dream his dreams. His grandfather fought the British for a Kurdish state; his father followed, co-operating now with the Shah, now with Moscow, now with the USA, getting nowhere. However, this new Barzani is very, very rich, and has American support (the PKK have acquired American weaponry as the result). His aim seems to be the creation of a Greater Kurdistan, and if that means using the PKK against Turkey, so be it. He has tolerated and perhaps even armed it, and Talabani refuses to extradite proven criminals to Turkey. Now the Turks are in a rage, and have mustered 100,000 troops on the border, threatening at the least to wipe out the dozen border camps.

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Sehmus

October 24th, 2007 6:01pm Report this comment

I didn't read the article completely because you need to be neutral to write about two organization. You have already made your decision that PKK is a terrorist group. Question: What makes it a terrorist group? Asking right for 15million Kurds? Fighting with Turkish Army?

James

October 25th, 2007 7:11am Report this comment

Turkey murders Armenians-Silence Turkey Invades-Cyprus Silence Turkey Denies Kurds Rights-Silence. If the Bully is never confronted he is still free to Bully.

Dario

October 25th, 2007 9:50am Report this comment

Turkey has entered iraq 24 times in past each time has attacked few PKK bases in most of the previous times Iraqi Kurdish helped them. however none of these attempts were fruitful and PKK has gone from strength to strength. The best solution for PKK is Full amnesty for PKK fighter and lifting ban on Kurdish cultural activities. also creating an environment were Kurds can take their fight to parlament.at the moment Turkey is ruled by bunch of army thugs who only interested in provoking Kurds to strength PKK and in return tell Turks they are the most important people in Turkey because they protect the nation hence need to keep 70% of the nations budget.

Ray Wallis

October 25th, 2007 11:31am Report this comment

The Turks are a nasty bunch of thugs with delusions of imperial grandure. The PKK is a perfectly legitimate freedom fighting organisation. It's that simple.

Broker

November 13th, 2007 2:03pm Report this comment

My esteemed fellow commentators can clearly spell the words "thug", "savage" and "freedom fighter"... I wonder if they can spell "racism" and "moral relativism" too?

Leo Colgar

November 15th, 2007 8:41pm Report this comment

Very good. Thank you very much indeed. It is good to see someone in Europe being aware of what is going on...

not important

November 18th, 2007 8:38pm Report this comment

To all those who have commented... how many of you actually know the history of what has happened in Turkish soil post the great war and during the revolution war? how many of you have had family, ancestors killed by Armenians when the men were at the battle field? The armenians revolted to the Ottoman Empire during the WW. They killed thousands of women and children in villages while the men were at the front. they fled the army and joined russian army to fight agains the ottomans. What was supposed to happen? should the ottomans have shaken their hand for all this? as for the kurds, they have done the same during the ottoman empire last years and also during the great national revolution war. and afterwards the pkk has killed 30,000 people most of which are civillians. they are an internationally recognised terrorist group. As far as Im concerned all you posting here either are ignorant or of ill nature and intention. either way, it is likes of you who speak without knowledge and with malintention that enable injustice to prevail in the world today. wake up and smell the coffee... i had 2 brothers killed by the pkk one was a soldier and the other just a civillian... i had 2 great great grandparents slain by the armenians during the great war. what justice are you talking about??? who is the bully???

Adam

November 18th, 2007 11:32pm Report this comment

Thanks to Norman Stone for this informative report.I wanna add just a few points to here: PKK is not only a simple terrorist party but also an organization supported by internal external evil forces aiming to block Tukey's development. Throughout the history, the Turks knew how to overcome such evil plans and provocations, and will do so in the future. Besides, how come a Kurdish terrorist group having killed even thousands of innocent Kurdish women and children can be called legitimate? Just a little bit reason please..

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