Ketene: Southeastern Anatolia Is Lost In Fifteen Years If A Kurdish State Is Established

WASHINGTON - Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) Representative in Washington Orhan Ketene has said that the Turkish army should settle security in Northern Iraq, defending, ''Turkey loses southeastern Anatolia in fifteen years if a Kurdish state is established.''
Speaking at a meeting of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations on Tuesday, Ketene evaluated history and future of Turkmen living in Northern Iraq.
Noting that the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Massoud Barzani was the group which opposed to a U.S. military action against Iraq while Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani was known as a ''fickle'' as he always took different sides, Ketene said that Iraqi Kurds were pleased with the current order, and they actually continued their ''state-like'' existence with their own flag, money and properties.
Stating that it was planned that Shi'ite Kurdish civilians who had been expelled by Saddam Hussein to Iran would rush to oil cities Kirkuk and Mousul after Saddam regime, Ketene said that this 100 thousand-people group including women and children who were known as ''vagabonds'' was being kept in camps. Defending that those cities' demographic structure that was formed mainly by Turkmens was planned to be replaced with people who had fake documents, Ketene said the U.S. army could not stop civilians so Turkish troops should exist in the region. ''If Turkey does not enter there, the situation functions against Turkey and a Kurdish state is founded. Then Turkey loses southeastern Anatolia in fifteen years,'' he claimed.
Stressing that Turkish army should settle security in the region for both Turkey's interests and Turkmen's interests, Ketene said, ''if a war does not start in Iraq and Saddam regime is not overthrown, Turkmens are annihilated in five years.''
''There is not any difference between Turks and Turkmens. There is 1200 years of Turkish history in Kirkuk. Overthrowing Saddam administration is in favor of everybody. We don't want Turkey to join this war, of course. But Saddam regime should be destroyed. Saddam is a man who threatened Turkey in 1979 with atomic bomb. This monster should be destroyed,'' he said.
Stressing that Turkmens should be represented in the democratic state to be founded after Saddam, Ketene said Turkmens constituted a factor of balance between Kurds and Arabs.
(MS-AÖ) 25.02.2003