Could a war over aKurdish homelanddestabilize theentire Persian Gulf?
In Iraq, Kurds Fear Another WarBy Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 3rd, 2007These days, a certain ceremony has become rather normal in the Qandil mountain range to the north of Iraq. The quiet is shattered by a young Kurdish fighter shooting into the air at a regular morning ceremony to “commemorate martyrs”.A new threat of war is looming in this region, which also cuts into Turkey and Iran.All three nations have sizable Kurdish populations, and the governments of all three are increasingly worried about a Kurdish revolt for a separate homeland. Iraq is the only nation in which Kurds have an autonomous region of their own.In recent months, Turkey and Iran have been threatening to sweep Qandil mountain positions held by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party of Turkey (PKK). Each say the PKK is launching cross-border operations from Iraq’s soil into Turkey and Iran, thus destabilizing both nations.The PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire on Oct. 1st last year, but the call was rejected by the Turkish government.”We don’t want to be forced to fight, and are still expecting a positive response to our ceasefire message from the relevant parties,” Rostam Joudi, member of PKK’s leadership council, told Inter Press Service (IPS), an international wire service.”Otherwise, we are quite prepared to counter any (Turkish) military operation. We can raise the level of the conflict…and it may get bigger than Iraq and Arab-Israeli conflicts,” Joudi said.PKK is on the terror lists of Turkey, the European Union and the United States. Since the group first began its struggle for a Kurdish homeland in Turkey in the early 1980s, the battle has claimed more than 35,000 lives.The possibility of an all-out war between PKK and Turkish troops has Iraqi Kurds worried. They fear that a Turkish attack on PKK bases may be the first step to a long-term occupation of their Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.It was principally Iraqi Kurds who persuaded PKK to call for the ceasefire, hoping it might lead to a diplomatic solution. Turks instead used this gesture to argue that such collaboration was a sign of Iraqi Kurds’ relations with PKK.In February, Turkish army chief Gen. Yasar Buyukanit accused Iraqi Kurdistan of being “the biggest supporter of the PKK at the moment.” As a result, Iraq’s Kurds are now uncertain how to deal with Turkey-PKK situation.Kurdistan regional president Massoud Barzani told the Turkish NTV channel that his forces will not simply allow Turkish troops enter northern Iraq. But Kurdistan’s regional government also refuses military action against the PKK. An attack on fellow Kurds would be fiercely opposed by the public.Kurdish leaders in Iraq are indeed aware that the PKK operations in Kurdistan threatens the stability of their region.They also know Kurdistan may therefore become a final target of both Turkish and Iranian forces. Turkish and Iranian forces have been occasionally shelling border villages since last spring, killing several Kurds.The Kurdish leaders in Iraq have frequently called on the Turkish government to provide better treatment of its own Kurdish population, and also have called for a general amnesty of PKK guerillas.Such moves, they claim, might persuade the PKK to opt for a strictly political struggle and leave the Iraqi Kurdistan mountains.But PKK leaders flatly reject such notions.”The presence of our forces in (Iraqi) Kurdistan region is not something to negotiate over,” Joudi told IPS. He also claimed that the PKK does not use Iraqi Kurdistan soil to launch its attacks, but instead uses fighters already inside Turkey.Recent developments in the region have not exactly gone PKK’s way. Iran is hoping to build a regional alliance with Turkey as a means to defuse international pressure on its nuclear program. As one might guess, it has shelled PKK positions in Qandil in an apparent bid to placate Turkey.Iran also has been taking on the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), a PKK offshoot centered in the Kurdish regions of Iran.PKK officials told IPS that the PJAK enjoys limited U.S. support; in any case, the PJAK has conducted several guerrilla operations in the western, predominantly Kurdish areas of Iran. American support or not, the activities have left dozens of casualties on both sides.PKK leaders say they expect a Turkish military invasion this spring. They also expect the attack to have a limited “time and area of operation.”We can only hope they’re right.
