Iraqi Turkmen To Be Trained By Egypt

BY FIKRET BILA
MILLIYET- Turkmen and Arabs have grown closer in the wake of the Kurds’ recent attempts to establish an ethnic-based federation in Iraq. The two ethnic groups have assumed a common stance, with both arguing that Kirkuk is an Iraqi city after the Kurdish groups revealed their ambition to include the oil-rich city within their territories.
The Turkmen are waiting for the support of the Arab world. Last week Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) head Faruk Abdullah held a series of meetings with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmet Mahir. Sources say that Musa and Mahir’s stances were a relief to the ITF, and can be summarized as follows:
‘Iraq’s territorial integrity will be protected. We can’t allow one group to dominate another. Kirkuk is an Iraqi city. It can’t be left to the domination of one ethnic group. Egypt will do its utmost to protect both Iraq’s territorial integrity and the rights of every ethnic group in the country.’
The Turkmen were highly satisfied with the Egyptian politicians’ warm reception. Meanwhile, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari had met with Egyptian and Arab officials a few days before the Turkmen. Zebari requested assistance from Egyptian officials to form a new Iraqi army. As a matter of fact, both Jordan and Egyptian signed agreements with Washington to provide the Iraqis with training assistance in forming their new army and police force. Jordan has already begun training Iraqis. However, only the Arabs and Kurds have been sent to the training, which is why the ITF requested that Egypt train the Turkmen groups as well. Mahir accepted, and Egypt is currently preparing to train the Turkmen.
But what is Turkey doing on this issue? Why isn’t Turkey training these people instead of Egypt and Jordan? It had previously been announced that Turkey would take an active role in rebuilding Iraq’s security forces. Does this statement still hold? ‘Turkey is now out of the picture,’ said the ITF’s Ahmed Muratli. ‘The US signed training agreements with Jordan and Egypt, not Turkey. All we want to do is to benefit from this opportunity to train ourselves.’
There’s no doubt that Turkey is one of the countries which could provide top-notch training to these people. However, Washington doesn’t want us to get involved in this business, and the same goes for the Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani. The Turkmen are striving to take advantage of this opportunity, and their hopes are depending on Egypt and Jordan.