Turkey’s foreign minister warned Iraqi Kurdish leaders in an interview published Sunday not to pursue a dream of a separate Kurdish state in the north of Iraq. In comments published in Hurriyet newspaper, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul also slammed what Turkey regards as Kurdish designs on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and again called on Iraq not to support rebels of the autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who have been launching attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq. “Don’t run after a Kurdistan. Forget your dream of taking Kirkuk. Don’t protect the PKK,” Hurriyet newspaper quoted Abdullah Gul as saying in an interview published Sunday. “You are on the brink of a historic mistake,” Gul was quoted as saying.
| The Turks have a legitimate concern about the PKK -- terrorism is terrorism, and the PKK deserves to be stomped. Likewise, the Turks have every right to control their own country, though they'd better get the message and treat their own Kurds better. But the Turks have no say whatsoever about Kirkuk; that's in Iraq and is up to the Iraqis. |
Gul said Kurdish leaders, President Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region, should not count on United States’ presence in the region to push forward dreams of creating a separate state. “(The Kurdish leaders) should not forget that Turkey will remain in the region forever. The United States, on the other hand, will leave after a while,” Gul was quoted as saying. The minister was apparently referring to the considerable influence the Kurdish leaders have been able wield with the Americans as heads of one of Iraq’s most stable areas.
| Guess Gul hasn't heard about the new airbases we'll have in the Kurdish region -- the ones we'll use to replace the ones we're leaving in Turkey. |