The Iraqi government is not too happy that Turkey is staging attacks on Kurdish rebels holed up in Northern Iraq. The Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and many European states, has been launching attacks against Turkish people and military targets from bases in Kurdish Iraq.
The Turkish military's cross-border incursion began Thursday night. They claim to have killed 153 rebels and lost 19 soldiers. The PKK says they killed 81 soldiers. The truth is somewhere in between. Kurdish rebels did shoot down a Turkish helicopter and kill more soldiers using booby-trapped corpses of their fallen brethern... what a grim thought.
Ankara's response is that the Iraqi government has done nothing to prevent the PKK from using the area. Because the Iraqi government has so much control over the Kurdish areas, let alone the rest of the country. Despite this, the U.S. green-lighted the attacks, once again siding with state terrorism.
ON KURDISH SELF-DETERMINATION
I am not sure about popular Kurdish opinion in Southeastern Turkey, but I believe in self-determination. Turkish nationalism has left out too many people despite efforts by the government to give nominal concessions to the Kurds. Yeah, it gave the state an ethno-ideological basis after the fall of the Ottoman empire, but then you can't be surprised that non-Turks wouldn't want to live under such a state's power.
If a critical mass of Kurds in that part of Turkey want statehood, they should get it. I cannot help but think the region may be a little better off with a Kurdistan on pieces of Turkey, Iraq and Iran. According to the BBC, "more than 30,000 people have been killed since the PKK began fighting for a Kurdish homeland in south-eastern Turkey in 1984." The vast majority of them were Kurds.
As a Palestinian, I've always felt solidarity with the Kurds, even though it rankled some of my pan-Arab nationalist friends. But screw it, if the states they live in do not give them the level of autonomy and cultural recognition they need, they should have a place to call home -- even if that means adding another, possibly pro-Israel, pro-West and militarized, state to the volatile cocktail in the region.
Showing posts with label kurds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kurds. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Turkey's War on the Kurds Hits Iraq
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