CUMHURIYET- Columnist Cuneyt Arcayurek comments on Turkish-US relations and the northern Iraq issue. A summary of his column is as follows:
Appearing on television yesterday, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit pointed to a fact which top levels of the state administration generally don’t feel comfortable speaking of openly. He said that the US as well as European countries were provoking northern Iraq’s Kurds, adding that even though the US has assured Turkey that it would not let a federal state take hold in Iraq, that process has long since been carried out. Ecevit also underlined that it was unclear what the US would do to prevent such a plot in Iraq. It is quite obvious, however, that the northern Iraq issue now constitutes a very dangerous situation for Turkey.
Yet, some people in Turkey prefer to ignore the danger. They question the scope of the threat, and even conclude that a Kurdish state in northern Iraq wouldn’t pose any danger at all. They claim that there is no difference in the threat levels of being a neighbor to Saddam Hussein or one to Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani. This line of argument may get even stronger in the days to come to such an extent that Turkey would refrain from intervening against a possible Kurdish state in the region. However, there really is an immediate threat. Here is what Ecevit said: ‘A Kurdish state in northern Iraq would definitely affect Turkey. No country in the world wants another one to pop out from within its own territory, but rather to preserve its national integrity. If a Kurdish state happens to be formed near Turkey’s southern borders, this would work against our nation.’
To grasp the truth contained in Ecevit words, it would be enough to take a look at maps appearing in certain pro-Kurdish media in Europe, displaying the borders of a so-called Kurdish state violating our own to include 19 Turkish towns. If that’s not enough, take note of what a northern Kurdish government member said in a recent article in the New York Review of Books: ‘For much of the last century the Kurds of northern Iraq have been rebelling against one government or another, and few make any secret of their desire to eventually achieve independence and then to join with Kurds from Iran, Syria, and Turkey in a large Kurdish state.’ This is what’s called an immediate threat.
Turkey has pledged to protect the rights of the Turkmen population in northern Iraq, if a Kurdish state is established with Kirkuk as its capital city, but how? By resorting to military force, or through diplomacy?
US Ambassador to Ankara Robert Pearson yesterday reiterated that a Kurdish state wouldn’t be formed in northern Iraq. However, such ‘verbal guarantees’ aren’t enough on their own. Did the US keep its promises made during the Gulf War to compensate Turkey’s losses due to the war? Is there anyone who can assure us that the US will not, in any way, change its mind on the northern Iraq issue?
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION