POLITICS-IRAQ: Turkish Military Opens Doors to U.S.

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nadire Mater

ISTANBUL, Mar 7 2003 (IPS) - Turkey’s chief of military staff Gen Hilmi Ozkok has spoken of the "inevitability" of Turkish military involvement in a war on Iraq, despite the parliament vote against giving U.S. forces a foothold on Turkish soil.

"Unfortunately we are left to choose between worse and worst, not between good and bad," Gen Ozkok said Wednesday.

"If we would remain completely uninvolved in the war we will be faced with the same losses should we have been involved," he said in a public statement. "But we would remain without any say in the post-war situation or in any compensation for our losses from the war."

Heavy U.S. military mobilisation was reported following his remarks in the southern Mediterranean ports Iskenderun and Mersin and in Silopi and Mardin towns close to the Iraqi border. U.S. military convoys are reported to have resumed transportation of personnel, vehicles and supplies after a week’s break.

The military moves running opposite to the verdict of Parliament point to plans for a second resolution in the Turkish parliament soon, says Yavuz Onen from the Human Rights Foundation.

"In legal terms Turkey is under U.S. occupation because the U.S. military presence is devoid of any framework under Turkish law," Onen told IPS. "Notwithstanding the parliament decision, U.S. troops have rented land in south-east Mardin (near the Iraq border) for a year. The government will have to move another resolution to bring the de facto situation into a legal framework."

Military moves are proceeding in the face of parliamentary and also local opposition. Sefik Turk, mayor of Diyarbakir in the south is trying to resist the U.S. pressure. "They say we will face a financial crisis without the Americans," he says. "But we have been living through a crisis for a decade and we are used to it. I prefer crisis to bloodshed."

Mehmet Mumcuodlu, owner of a shoe store says that just the fear of war has hit them. "I have not been able to sell one pair of shoes in a week," he told IPS. "Just the rumour of war has finished us. Imagine what happens when it begins."

At the heart of the Turkish military moves are questions over the Kurd minority divided between southern Turkey and northern Iraq. Kurds in Iraq have been protesting against Turkish military intervention following a U.S. attack on Iraq. The Turkish military is warning already of retaliation.

Fifteen years of internal conflict with Kurdish guerrillas has left the Turkish government wary about the emergence of any Kurdish state. Turkey is more concerned with preserving Iraq’s territorial integrity than with the fate of Saddam Hussein’s regime, former prime minister Bulent Ecevit told U.S. leaders on a visit to Washington last year.

Turkey fears that a Kurdish move towards independence or autonomy in Iraq could stir up its own Kurd population of about 12 million in a total of 68 million. Kurds were split across four countries after the collapse of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. The split has left a population of 12 million Kurds in Turkey, two million in northern Iraq, about a million in Iran and close to a million in Syria.

Gen. Hayri Ates, secretary of the pro-Kurdish HADEP (People’s Democracy Party) in Turkey is critical of Ozkok’s stand: "His position is far from public expectations," he says. "Considering the heavy losses from the 15 years of conflict in southeast Turkey, we are against any military intervention in northern Iraq."

But Turkish intervention in northern Iraq has been continuing for some time, says analyst Umit Firat. "Turkish troops frequently launch cross-border operations and strike northern Iraq in countless air raids," he told IPS. "Turkey fears the replacement of Saddam Hussein by a democratic regime that could grant northern Iraqi Kurds more freedom." That would give Kurds a stronger voice to resist both Iraqi dictatorship and Turkish intervention.

Turkey is reported to be considering a multi-ethnic equation for northern Iraq where the local Turkoman population would become a part of an autonomous administration if the present status quo were destroyed. In Ankara’s view, such an approach would safeguard Turkey’s greater influence in the region in the aftermath of a collapsed Saddam regime.

But Firat believes that "Turkey is making a mistake in playing the Turkoman card." The move would only lead to "conflict and competition between the Kurds and Turkomans who have been coexisting in the area for decades without significant conflict," he says.

The Washington based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has raised concerns over any Turkish military intervention in northern Iraq. "The record of the Turkish military in combating Kurdish rebels at home raises serious concerns about its engagement in northern Iraq during or after any war," the group warned in a briefing paper ‘Turkey and War in Iraq: Avoiding Past Patterns of Violation’.

"If Turkish operations in northern Iraq bear any resemblance to those in southeastern Turkey, we can expect to see a human rights disaster," says Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of HRW. "The best bet against a repeat performance would be to keep past abusers out of northern Iraq, and to make sure civilian monitors are on the ground to observe the military’s conduct."