What kind of a mess does Washington have on its hands in northern Iraq? According to this article from Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper, if Iraq’s Kurds turn their backs on Baghdad and instead help their terrorist brethren in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party battle the Turks, the six-years of war in Iraq will likely be only a prelude to a series of invasions and wars between and amongst neighboring states and the United States …
“The entry of Turkish troops on the pretext of attacking extremist Turkish-Kurdish parties would give justification to many other countries to intervene for the same reasons. … Just as the Americans use Iraq as an arena to settle its accounts with al-Qaeda.”
By Jamaa Alatwani
Translated By James Jacobson
October 23, 2007
Iraq – Kitabat – Original Article (Arabic)
Our brothers in the Kurdistan region are having a difficult time with their political status, being forced to choose between options one could call standing between Scylla and Charybdis.
[Editor’s Note: Scylla and Charybdis are two sea monsters in Greek mythology situated on opposite sides of a narrow channel of water, so close that sailors avoiding Charybdis will pass too close to Scylla and vice versa – thus being unable to escape with their lives .
Iraqi Kurdish officials believe that the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] is justified in preventing their rights from being trampled on by the Turkish government, and wish to see their efforts culminate in their acquiring the same rights that Iraq’s Kurds have already obtained.
Moreover, Iraqi Kurdistan officials feel sympathy with and want to support the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK], even feeling it necessary to openly stand with them – in particular because of the PKK’s support for Iraqi Kurds during their struggle against the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein.
The Kurdish right to belong to a nation; their right to self-determination; their strategic goal of building a Kurdish state which was wrecked by the Sykes-Picot agreement and the logistical cooperation between the two Kurdish sides (Iraqi and Turkish), all these cause Iraqi Kurds to reject The entrance of Turkish forces onto Iraqi territory, since this is regarded as a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty†on the one hand, and the right of Kurds to self-determination on the other.
But this nationalistic and social cohesion between the two Kurdish sides conflicts with the Iraqi Constitution and Iraqi government opinion.
The Constitution stresses intolerance toward any armed group using Iraqi territory as a springboard for violent operations against a neighboring country or any other country, nor has any neighboring state the right to make its territory a platform for armed terrorist groups attacking the state of Iraq.
It should also be noted that the U.S. administration and European Union have put the “Kurdish Workers Party†on their lists of terrorist organizations.
At this juncture there is confusion and ambivalence on the part of Iraqi Kurdish officials and even several Kurdish deputies in the Iraqi Parliament, some of whom are demanding that the government intervene to prevent the Turkish government from striking the PKK, arguing that it is Baghdad which is responsible for securing Iraqi territory and that the Kurdistan region is an inseparable part of Iraq.
READ THE REST ON WATCHINGAMERICA
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US