New Danger In Northern Iraq

MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen comments on escalating tensions on Turkey’s role in northern Iraq. A summary of his column is as follows:
At a time when everyone is focused on ongoing Turkish-US talks concerning preparations for conflict in Iraq and the proposal to be presented to Parliament, the news coming from northern Iraq is worrying. This news signals that Turkey might come into conflict with the Kurds in northern Iraq. While the meetings between Turkey and the US are near their conclusion, Kurdish leaders are talking about the possibility of conflicts, foreshadowing a new danger in the region.
As Turkey has emphasized during its talks with the US, the issues it considers vital in the determination of northern Iraq’s status are as follows: 1) Iraq’s territorial integrity must be protected. 2) The establishment of an independent Kurdish state must not be permitted. 3) A possible Iraqi federal system must be organized not based on ethnic lines, but rather on geographical ones. 4) The country’s ethnic Turkmen will be considered ‘essential constitutive elements’ and included in the country’s new political structure. 5) The Kurds must not have dominion over Mosul or Kirkuk. 6) Kurdish peshmergas will be disarmed when the time comes.
Meanwhile, Turkey has taken an important military stance by starting preparations for transporting units to northern Iraq ahead of a possible war. Ankara stated that these soldiers would be stationed in northern Iraq to stop a possible flood of refugees and to head off the terrorist PKK/KADEK from declaring an independent state or seizing Mosul and Kirkuk. Turkish officials stated that our forces would undertake this duty of establishing control in northern Iraq whether or not US soldiers are given permission to pass through Turkish territory for a northern front.
It’s been known from the beginning that northern Iraq’s Kurdish groups didn’t welcome Turkey’s taking a stand in the region. During their meetings with Turkish officials, these groups have been saying that they weren’t seeking independence, but also requesting that Ankara not get involved in the determination of their status. When the issue of Turkish soldiers’ entering northern Iraq and controlling certain areas and the disarmament of peshmergas came onto the table, the Kurds said the following: 1) The Turkish army shouldn’t be stationed in northern Iraq. 2) Kurdish authorities will decide on the disarmament of peshmergas when Iraq’s new general structure is determined. 3) Turkey’s political and military interventions would cause other actors to intervene and thus sow instability.
Such tension between Turkey and northern Iraq’s Kurds is troublesome. In particular, if Turkish soldiers enter northern Iraq and Kurdish militants resist them, this could have dangerous consequences. Turkey thinks it is obliged to establish a military presence in northern Iraq in order to head off ‘untoward developments.’ Ankara should tell the Kurds and the world at large its reasons for this stance, using sound arguments. This shouldn’t be considered an intervention in another country or, what would be worse, as occupation.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION