By Yusuf Kanli
A week after the Sharm el Sheikh conference on Iraq, a very important meeting will get under way today in Tehran. The two-day gathering of the interior ministers of Iraq's neighbors -- Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, plus Egypt -- whatever the official agenda is, naturally will be dominated by the growing insurgency in nearby Iraq, the U.S. offensive on Fallujah and Mosul and charges made by the interim government in Baghdad, particularly against Iran, of leaving its lengthy border with Iraq open to insurgents and also of "meddling" in their country's affairs.
As if aimed at making an advance counter-move against any possible charge on the part of the Iraqi delegation at the meeting, Iran's deputy interior minister for security affairs, Ali Asghar Ahmadi, declared in Tehran late Sunday, "The Islamic Republic is ready to train Iraqi police and border guards and even equip them as well as help with the country's reconstruction." Iran must have understood the importance to itself of Iraq’s security and stability, while it appears that Turkey is still pondering what to do.
According to available “statistics” -- how sad to use such a cold word in this connection in view of the immense human suffering experienced -- although it’s not part of the occupation force in Iraq, with 66 victims lost to the Iraqi insurgency Turkey has become the country with the highest civilian death toll.
Again, according to unverifiable data, Turkey’s business volume with Iraq has exceeded $1.5 billion and is increasing. Turkey can ignore neither the Iraqi market nor the reconstruction of that war-devastated country. But at the same time Turkey simply can’t let its citizens be slaughtered by some barbaric hordes claiming to act in the name of Islam or resist the occupation force and the U.S.-installed interim government.
Turkey is in a rather paradoxical situation as regards what to do and how to provide for the security of its truckers, contractors and workers -- at least for those who are left -- in Iraq. It can't send its troops to provide security for its people doing business there, nor can it take a firm and clear-cut position against the Iraqi resistance -- other than issuing messages of condemnation every time the remains of Turks murdered there are handed over to their families -- nor can it actively support the American troops trying to battle the insurgency.
The Turkish public and government are as well in a state of confusion. Are Iraqi insurgents -- bloodthirsty terrorists -- mercilessly beheading and shooting our truckers and torching our trucks, or are they freedom fighters trying to liberate their country from foreign occupation? Even Mehmet Elkatmis, the head of the Turkish Parliament's Human Rights Commission, was able to come up with a charge that "The U.S. administration is committing genocide ... in Iraq. Never in human history have such genocide and cruelty been witnessed. Such a genocide was never seen in the time of the pharaohs [of ancient Egypt], nor of Hitler nor of [Italy's fascist leader Benito] Mussolini."
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, like most of us, upset with the horrific “murder in the mosque” reports and terrifying graphics, could not help but express to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, during a call to congratulate Cheney and President George W. Bush on their electoral victory, that Turkey was perturbed by the offensive on Fallujah and the fatal shooting of a wounded Iraqi by a U.S. Marine in a mosque.
Though it is impossible to condone what was seen -- the slaying in the mosque and other incidents -- and what escaped the cameras in the Fallujah offensive, were we expecting an insurgency be battled with roses? Did we not know that Fallujah was a stronghold of a major Iraqi insurgency group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? Wasn't it the same group that killed most of our truckers?
Where are we really in all this mess? Yes, we were against war and still maintain our position. But there is a war going on there, and it appears that it will spread towards the north -- that is, closer to our border. Reports from Mosul and a recent statement by the Zarqawi group claiming responsibility for the bodies found in Mosul are rather alarming. Furthermore, analysts are all warning that as the scheduled January election date approaches, a further intensified insurgency must be expected.
We could continue sitting back and condemning the Americans and let our truckers be killed -- since our businessmen will not, and should not, abandon their Iraq business -- or we could help strengthen the interim government in Baghdad.
At the Sharm el Sheikh meeting Iraq’s foreign minister, Hosyar Zebari, declared the intention of his government to ask Iran and Turkey for border security arrangements to keep foreign militants out. Turkey should definitely cooperate with the Iraqi interim government on border security issues but at the same time must, like Iran, offer Baghdad help in training a new army and a new police force capable of dealing with the insurgency.
We have to understand that Iraq’s security and stability are vital for Turkey and that what’s at stake will not only be the lives of our truckers if we ignore the need to help strengthen the central administration in Baghdad. Turkey must realize that our problem in Iraq is not confined to some anti-Turkish militants in mountains of northern Iraq.