BY ILNUR CEVIK
The New Anatolian – ERBIL, ANKARA
Iraqi govt wants to dismantle PKK from the northern Kurdish mountains, Kurdish leaders unhappy that militants are using their land against Turkey.
The newly appointed Iraqi government, under intense pressure from Washington , is considering ways to dismantle the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group from the mountains of the Iraqi Kurdish region in the north, highly placed Kurdish sources in the Baghdad government say.
The sources said the government has now concluded that the presence of the PKK in northern Iraq, an area run by the Kurdistan regional government, is unwanted and thus the PKK in Iraq should be “finished off” for good.
Both Arab and Kurdish members of the Baghdad administration admitted that the Americans have intensified their pressure on them in recent months to act against the PKK. “We do not want the PKK in our region,” one highly placed Kurdish official told The New Anatolian. He asked to remain unidentified in view of the Iraqi Kurdish public sensitivities on the issue.
The New Anatolian was told American officials have been increasingly critical of the PKK presence in Iraq . The latest was U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who visited Iraq recently and asked the Kurdish leadership to end the PKK presence.
The Iraqi Kurdish leaders say they do not want to move against the PKK through unilateral action but would be “comfortable” with an Iraqi Army action to bring down the PKK from the Iraqi Kurdish mountains, especially in the Kandil region bordering Iran . Sources say Kurdish peshmerga forces would be heavily involved in the Iraqi army operations against the PKK.
Kurdish leaders have pondered the idea that a way to dismantle the PKK in Iraq could be a declaration of a comprehensive amnesty for the PKK militants by Turkey that would bring them down from the mountains and allow them to return to Turkey . However, they now see that there is growing anti-Kurdish sentiments among the Turkish public and that neither the government nor any other power in Turkey would be able to issue such an amnesty.
The Iraqi government and especially the Kurdish wing of the leadership do not want heavy Turkish involvement in the dismantling of the PKK in Iraq . They say Turkish forces that number around 1,000 currently in northern Iraq may monitor the operations as observers.
The PKK has been holed up in the rugged Iraqi mountains in the north since PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was caught by Turkey and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000. The PKK lost blood both in Turkey and in Iraq . It declared a unilateral ceasefire that was rejected by Turkey . Last year Ocalan asked for the resumption of terrorist activities, which drew angry reactions from the Iraqi Kurdish leadership. The Iraqi Kurdish leaders, with the help of the Americans, moved to divide the PKK leadership which resulted in Osman Ocalan, the brother of Abdullah Ocalan, defecting from the terrorist ranks and moving to Mosul with his followers.
At least 2,000 PKK elements remain in the mountains of Iraq and some have moved in and out of Turkey in recent months. The Iraqi Kurdish leadership is unhappy with this situation, and Iraqi Kurdish prime minister designate Necirvan Barzani has told The New Anatolian, “This is an unacceptable situation. We cannot allow anyone to use our territory against Turkey .”
The New Anatolian has been told the issue of dismantling the PKK from the Iraqi Kurdish mountains will be taken up in Baghdad and in the Kurdish regional government once the new Iraqi government settles down to business in earnest.