BY Yusuf KANLI
TDN - An absurd and hyper-phobic practice of former president Ahmet Necdet Sezer will go down the drain today with the arrival of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani at the Cankaya presidential office... Though it will be a "working visit" and Talabani will not be hosted with a full red-carpet treatment or the 21-gun-salute accorded to visiting heads of state on "state visits" to Turkey, this will be the first ever trip to Turkey since the Iraqi Kurdish leader became president of Iraq. Indeed, although Talabani visited Turkey in November 2003 as term chairman of the provisional presidential council, this will be the first ever presidential visit to Turkey from Iraq.
It's definitely a long overdue visit, but under the current domestic and international situation, its timing is unfortunately rather inappropriate. To say the least, at a time when we have such a heated debate in Turkey about who initiated the termination of the land operation on separatist hideouts in northern Iraq, when the Turkish military and the opposition parties are at loggerheads and trading barbs, will it be appropriate to have Talabani -definitely considered a collaborator with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) by some of the Turkish establishment - in Turkey while discussions continue over the land operation?
Still, Talabani's visit to Turkey will be an icebreaker; one that we hope will serve to establish a better understanding between the two countries.
Unlike what the paid propagandists of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) might try to portray, we should not have high expectations for great successes to emerge out of this visit. This visit will help break the psychological barrier erected by the former president because Talabani is a Kurd and thus considered a "natural ally" of the separatist PKK terrorist gang. It was very unfortunate that Turkey has failed to look at Iraq and Talabani's presidency with a wider perspective and a comprehensive analysis of overall interests of our country rather than with a simple perception of terrorist threat.
Naturally, Talabani would love to play the role of the "elder statesman" helping Turkey to adopt a "peaceful approach" to the separatist terrorism threat and to the country's Kurdish problem. We hope this "maiden trip" to Turkey will not be spoiled by such a suggestion by Talabani. He is a politician who might know the PKK and the Kurdish problem far better than anyone else in this geographical area, thus he might have some very interesting ideas and even perhaps the capability to play the role of a facilitator. However, the climate in Turkey is not at all suitable for the involvement of foreigners in this "internal problem" because of the power vacuum in Iraq and some wrong United States and local Iraqi Kurdish policies that have spread to northern Iraq.
During the visit Talabani will come under increased pressure from Turkey that Iraq must take firmer and definitely effective actions against the PKK presence in its territory, curtail its mobility, prevent it from using the banking system in northern Iraq to transfer precious funds it collected in European countries and restrain its recruitment capabilities. Despite all the denials made by Massoud Barzani, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader and local northern Iraqi administrator, there is reliable intelligence indicating that members of the PKK wounded in the Turkish operations were being treated in northern Iraqi hospitals.
Thus, Talabani must know that if he wants to win hearts and minds in Turkey, both his government and the local northern Iraqi administration must make "greater contributions" to Turkey's fight against terror.
Committed to settlement:
Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat had extensive talks in Ankara yesterday with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdodan. The meeting was aimed at fine-tuning the Cyprus policy before the anticipated start of the new round of Cyprus talks that Talat has been stressing should aim at resolving the problem on the eastern Mediterranean island by the end of this year.
After the Ankara talks, we may say that Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot side maintain their "pro-settlement resolve" and demand the start of a comprehensive new process on the basis of the "parameters laid down by the United Nations." Is the Annan plan in the cards again? Yes, but as a reference document.
(Yusuf Kanly can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected])