File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/marxism-general.9712, message 155


Subject: M-G: Fw: "Kirkuk And Mosul Dreams" - A Letter From South Kurdistan
From: Arm The Spirit <ats-AT-locust.etext.org>
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 22:44:47 -0800




Forwarded by Liam R.Flynn <liam-AT-stones.com>
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---------------- Original message follows ----------------
 From: Arm The Spirit <ats-AT-locust.etext.org>
 To: Multiple recipients of list <ats-l-AT-burn.ucsd.edu>
 Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 22:44:47 -0800
 Subject: "Kirkuk And Mosul Dreams" - A Letter From South Kurdistan
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"Kirkuk And Mosul Dreams"

A Letter From South Kurdistan

By Ferda Cetin

     There is nothing in the papers. The BBC, the Voice of
Germany, and the Voice of Turkey radios provide similar news and
comments at similar times. It may be a coincidence! However,
South Kurdistan is boiling. The war is continuing and spreading.
The UN and member states no longer make significant protests.
Even Syria, Iran, and Iraq have not made much fuss this time. All
this indicates that the occupation was a pre-organized
international plan, the instigators and financiers being the
United States and Britain with the full support of Turkey. At the
beginning of the military operation, Turkey stated that the
reasons for the operation were as follows: to clear the
area of the PKK, to establish a "security zone" along the border,
and to secure Barzani's authority in northern Iraq. The Turkish
state has not succeeded in achieving any of these aims.
     The PKK is still carrying out activities in the areas it
controls. Turkey has been unable to establish a 'cordon
sanitaire' along the border, where PKK guerrillas are still
active. The third reason given for the incursion has also not
come to fruition. Barzani and the KDP have not only failed to
reestablish their authority, they have also lost their previous
prestige and the trust of the people.
     Turkey is no longer insistent about these stated aims. It is
now becoming clear that these were only diplomatic justifications
and that its real aims are different. The Turkish General Staff
said that its stay in the south for this second operation (of
1997) would be "limited and reasonable". However, military posts
have been constructed in South Kurdistan, new armored vehicles
and tanks are being sent in, and positions are being dug. Control
points are being established on the main roads for Turkish
troops. Turkish soldiers are on the streets of Zakho, Dohuk,
Amadiya, and Salahaddin. To a great extent they are responsible
for security in these cities. As for the KDP, it is involved in
intelligence gathering for the Turkish army, providing it with
information about the terrain and showing it the way. The Turkish
army has spread out over a wide area to the south of the area
where the PKK is active, attempting to take over strategic points
far from "its own border". It has stationed significant numbers
of troops and armored vehicles between the border at Khabur and
the towns of Zakho and Dohuk. Therefore in future there will be
no need to cross the border when reinforcements are required.
There are now two large military H.Q.s in this area. The
mountainous area to the east is under the control of the
guerrillas of the ARGK [People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan,
the armed wing of the PKK]. The road between Atrush and Afrin is
also under Turkish control while the Gare area to the north is
used by the guerrillas. The area to the southeast of Metina,
where fierce clashes took place during the previous invasion
earlier this year, and the road between Deraluk, Shaladizeh, and
Amadiyah is under Turkish control. The Turkish army is digging in
here. The area to the north of this road contains guerrillas,
whose area of influence stretches across the Turkish border into
the Cukurca, Hakkari, and Shemdinli districts. The Turkish army
has also entered many small towns and villages and its
intelligence and contra-guerrilla units have gone
south of the 36th parallel. In this way the hypocrisy of the U.S.
and Britain in making a fuss about violations of the 36th
parallel by Iraq becomes more apparent. The Turkish army comes
>from hundreds of kilometers away and settles in to this area,
which has been forbidden to Saddam's regime in order to protect
the Kurds.
     Clashes are occurring around all the places I have mentioned
but the major clashes are now taking place to the east. The KDP
is suffering a rout in the Haji Umran, Sideka, Rawanduz, and
Diana areas near the Iranian border. The Turkish offensive
launched a week ago has not made any difference. The KDP's
contacts with Iran have been cut, and while the ARGK are
attacking from the north and the west, the National Democratic
Forces under the leadership of the PUK are attacking the KDP from
the south, hemming it in. 
     While the Turkish army provides aerial support to the KDP,
which is in difficulties in the towns of Shaklawa and Salahaddin,
it has also sent tanks to reinforce it. Even the Barzani area,
which the Iraqi forces have never been able to enter, is under
siege. ARGK guerrillas first entered this area in 1995. Now the
Barzani homeland has been abandoned to the protection (!) of
Turkish troops.
     The KDP and Barzani, having lost much of its military power
and political prestige, has become accustomed to making
concessions from its feudal pride. White haired peshmergas who
have fought for 40 years and 70-year-old grandmothers may not
know the details of the U.S./British plan, but they understand
very well that Barzani can no longer protect them and that the
Turkish soldiers are not their people.
     The Turks, hungrily invading these "virgin, deserted lands",
wish to "open a new page in the history of their forefathers".
They have their eyes on Mosul and Kirkuk, and if the U.S./British
plan for a Middle East without Saddam and without opposition
materializes then Turkey will take its share with the help of the
Turcomans in Mosul and Kirkuk. However, events so far demonstrate
that this dream is unlikely to become fact, for Kurdistan no
longer lacks a protector.

(Source: Ozgur Politika Weekly No. 42 - November 20, 1997)

----
For A Free And Independent Kurdistan!
KURD-L Archives - http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/kurd-l




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