By Ilnur Cevik
Turkish Daily News - The Kurds of Iraq are not only our relatives but they are our friends thus we feel we are obliged to give some friendly warning as we observe a tendency among these people to misread the current situation in Iraq and in the flood of jubilation get carried away with nationalistic feelings.
Our friend Masoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Democracy Party (KDP) says it is a great victory for the Kurds that Turkey did not militarily intervene in northern Iraq... We feel this statement could be rephrased to say "we thank Turkey for not intervening in northern Iraq and creating a very dangerous situation" and that "this shows Turkey has matured enough not to jump the gun and get carried away with emotions and is trusting both the Kurds and the Americans that they will protect the rights and existence of the Turkomans."
Besides all this we feel the Kurds should not misread this situation as a sign of weakness on the part of Turkey. They know well that Turkey will never tolerate a situation that hurts its vital interests irrespective of the fact that it may end up having to defy the American superpower.
There is a level headed civilian and military leadership in Turkey which is giving the Iraqi Kurds as well as the Americans the benefit of the doubt and expect them to live up to their past promises and obligations regarding the future status of northern Iraq as well as rights of the Turkomans.
They should be aware that if Turkey sees its vital interests violated or the Turkomans under a fatal threat then even those level headed civilian and military leaders will not hesitate to act in a very swift manner.
But we have to also warn our Iraqi Kurdish friends and brothers that they should try to avoid displays of jubilation or even any kind of political provocations that will turn the Arabs against them.
If you start displaying pro-Kurdish slogans and posters of Barzani in the heart of Baghdad this could create deep resentment among the Arabs whose national pride has been hurt with the humiliation of the war irrespective of the fact that the Americans arrived as their liberators.
Then when you hear of incidents where Kurdish peshmerga forces are involved in looting and skirmishes in Tikrit or are forcing Arabs out of their homes as we have read in the Associated Press wire dispatch from Mosul it is clear that such reports will only sharpen the Arab anger against the Kurds and that will not help in the future when the Iraqi Kurdish leaders tell the majority Arabs that they want to run their own enclave in the north preserving their 12 year old self rule...
Yes, the Kurds do have a right to rejoice as the citizens of a free Iraq which has rid itself from dictatorship. But this has to be done hand in hand with the Turkomans, Arabs and the Assyrians and not as Kurdish nationalists...