Turkey, Iraq, and Kurdistan: Peaceful For Now

A terrorist organization, the PKK, says it's for Kurdish independence, among other things. The PKK has killed a few Turks.

Turkey has reason to be upset. PKK raids have killed 13 Turkish soldiers here, seven Turkish soldiers there.

So, the Turkish parliament gave the okay to invade Iraq on Wednesday of this week. I'm sure they used the proper, diplomatic, euphemism for it: but that's the bottom line. Turkey's Prime Minister says that Turkey will use "common sense" about using the 60,000 troops they've got massed on border with Iraq. (see Turkey, Iraq, and Kurdistan (October 16, 2007))

Turkey says that Iraq should clean up the PKK problem, Iraq says that they're stretched thin already, with terrorists (and crazed security guards) loose on the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere.

So far, Turkey seems to have been using the "common sense" their PM talked about. I hope that situation holds - and that no one in Turkey decides to have a shot at reclaiming the Ottoman province of Kurdistan.

Turkey, Iraq, and Kurdistan

If the powers of the Middle East could make money off the region's ability to produce crises, they wouldn't need oil revenue. The people running countries there are at least as thin-skinned and reality-averse as people everywhere.

Take Turkey and Kurdistan, for example.

Odds are that Turkey's parliament will give the okay tomorrow, to invade northern Iraq. "Invade" isn't the word used in the news. It's more like 'conduct "operations"' and "send troops." And, Turkey has some reason for taking action like that. A terrorist group, PKK, that says it's for Kurdish independence, has been going into Turkey and killing people.

People in Turkey are understandably upset.

And, people in the part of northern Iraq that's called Kurdistan aren't too happy about the possibility of Turkish troops in their territory, breaking things and killing people.

"The passage of the motion in Parliament does not mean that an operation will be carried out at once," is what Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "Turkey would act with common sense and determination when necessary and when the time is ripe."

A government acting with common sense would be nice.

I'd say there's a good chance that Turkey won't invade Iraq right now. Turkey needs oil revenue as much as other countries need oil, and starting a war in northern Iraq would put a serious crimp in their business.

As for a massive anti-PKK raid turning into a war of conquest, it's hard to believe that the current rulers of Turkey seriously plan to re-conquer the Ottoman province of Kurdistan. But stranger, and more self-destructive, things have happened.

What still puzzles me is why Turkey's current leadership is so concerned in denying what the Ottoman Empire did to another ethnic minority: the Armenians. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recently, recognizing the death of about 1,500,000 Armenians around WWI and following: and the Turkish government is so peeved about it that they might stop letting U.S. forces get supplies to Iraq through Turkey.

Turkey isn't alone in wanting history re-written, of course. For example, Japan's government denies that the Japanese drafted Korean women as prostitutes during WWII. Japan's denial is more understandable than Turkey's defense of the Ottoman Empire. There's a fairly direct connection between Japan's government during WWII, and the current leadership. (And, Japan's efforts are slightly less likely to succeed, at least for a while: Some of the "sex slaves," as the press likes to call the women drafted into a sort of state-run sex industry, are still alive: like Wu Hsiu-mei.

The Armenian connection is important because the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution that would officially recognize the Armenian genocide. That resolution may not last, though. Members of the majority party in the house had a flash of insight, and are reconsidering their position on the Armenian resolution.

• The real:
  "Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)" They want in made clear that they're not the PKK. "The Kurdistan Region is Iraq’s safest and most secure. But we may soon pay a heavy price for the actions of the PKK in Turkey, and for a House Foreign Affairs Committee vote about Armenia in the U.S. – neither of which have anything to do with the Kurds of Iraq or the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG.)" is how today's lead article put it.
  
• The ideal:
  "aka Kurdistan / a place for collective memory and cultural exchange" - a pretty good online resource, which also seems to be selling a book. The site includes a "map and timeline to find photographs and stories from Kurds and Westerners about Kurdistan's history and culture. The map was a rather hopeful one, dating from 1945, shown at the San Francisco Conference by the Kurdish League Delegation.

Fried, Rice Talk Turkey

There's no doubt that the U.S. government is taking Turkey seriously.

Both Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and former ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman and Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Dan Fried have joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Turkey. That's a lot of secretaries.

The purpose of the Edelman-Fried-Rice team is over there to talk turkey about the Turkish government about America's use of Turkey's airspace and ground transportation to supply troops in Iraq. That, and the American House of Representatives embarrassing Turkey by reminding the of the Armenian Genocide that Turkey says didn't happen.

On top of logistics and alternative histories, there are the 60,000 or so Turkish troops on the Iraq border. One reasonable explanation is that Turkey wants to, ah, enter Iraq and deal with Kurdish rebels who have been killing Turks. The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, seems to a particularly troublesome group. (The U.S. State Department has declared the Kurdistan Workers' Party to be a terrorist group.)

Turkey says that it's tried to get America and Iraq to take care of the PKK and other annoyances, but is ready to go into Iraq and do the job itself, if necessary. The Iraqi government doesn't see that sort of invasion in a very positive light.

Although it's wildly unlikely to happen, and I don't approve of the PKK, I wouldn't mind seeing Kurdistan become a nation, made up of parts of eastern Turkey, Northern Iraq, and western Iran.

The land of the Kurds is a distinct area where Kurds live. There was a province of Kurdistan in the Ottoman Empire. There would probably be a Kurdistan now, if the allies hadn't been distracted (and, in my opinion, arrogant) when they carved up the Ottoman Empire, and other colonial holdings, after WWI. Actually, a "Kurdistan" was defined, but Mustafa Kemal and company sent troops in, and now we've got today's boundaries.

If you think I'm biased about this, check out the Kurdistan Regional Government website. And remember: Being biased doesn't necessarily mean being wrong.

Back to Turkey

Today, not quite a century later, American officials are dealing with a successor of Mustafa Kemal's bunch, who don't like being reminded of what a previous dynasty did to the Armenians.

What puzzles me most about the current Turkish situation is why the current rulers are so anxious to hush up something done by a previous set of rulers. I'd think that they'd be happy to be able to show how superior they are to the Ottoman Empire.