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> mail stop:<trinity-AT-hot-shot.com> ---------------- 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 -- "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 --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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