BY FERAI TINC
HURRIYET- Columnist Ferai Tinc writes on Turkey’s Iraq policy. A summary of her column is as follows:
Iraq’s Kurds, who embraced foreign powers after the fall of Saddam Hussein, are the most worried ethnic group in the war-torn country about Turkey’s decision to send its troops there. I can understand why. Prominent Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said he believed soldiers from Iraq’s immediate neighbors would only plunge the country into deeper chaos since they have their own agenda on Iraq besides the country’s reconstruction.
I’ve said before that no matter how oppressive was Saddam’s regime, it had to be overthrown by the Iraqi people themselves. I was against the war. I opposed the US troop deployment in our territories. However, now the situation has completely changed. Saddam was toppled by a US-led war, and Washington is unable to establish a new order. It’s impossible to provide the Iraqi people with reliable basic services without first establishing security in the country. The United Nations and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are withdrawing their staffs from Iraq. The priority in Iraq is security, which is why I believe Turkish troops should cooperate with the coalition forces towards this end. But how, and under which conditions? New negotiations are underway to nail down the details. There’s an important point here: Turkey should consider its own fight against the Kurdish terrorist group PKK/KADEK as a separate issue. Ankara should of course seek international support, since the PKK/KADEK announced that it had ended its cease-fire. However, Turkey doesn’t have to send its troops to Iraq to combat terrorism. This is a different fight. Therefore, fighting terrorism and contributing to Iraq’s stability are two different priority issues on Ankara’s agenda.
It’s high time for Ankara to take important steps which will change our country’s negative image in the eyes of the world on the Kurdish issue. Ankara should pursue an Iraq policy which treats all ethnic groups equally and favors the immediate establishment of an Iraqi democracy, so the world can see that its worries about Turkey’s so-called ‘secret plans for northern Iraq’ are based on nothing but idle gossip.