A fair and just compromise
NO MATTER what any of the key player in the Kurdish crisis in Iraq does, there is little prospect for resolvign the root problem — the Kurds' quest what they consider as their birthright to independence.
For such is the strength that the Kurds have built over the decades within the region and in Europe. Their "cause" got a major boost when the US backed them against Saddam Hussein after the war over Kuwait in 1991 and gave them a protective umbrella in northern Iraq where they expanded their autonomous regime. Today, the Kurdish area is the most stable part of Iraq.
However, on the other side of the border in Turkey, the Turkish Kurds were restless and they moved into northern Iraq following the ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime. Today, the number of fighters belonging to the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq is estimated at more than 3,000. They are waging a cross-border insurgency against the Turkish government.
The PKK has always waved between the goals of expanded autonomy and statehood for Turkish Kurds, but now it seems to have settled for statehood, a goal also pursued by the Kurds of Iraq, Iran and Syria but opposed by all the regional governments.
The latest in the stand-off is that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is willing to give diplomacy a chance despite having a mandate from the Turkish parliament to launch military attacks the PKK fighters in northern Iraq.
Indeed, there could be a diplomatic solution to the problem since the PKK also seems to be ready for a compromise (it has said it would stop cross-border attacks if the Turkish government called off a military incursion into northern Iraq). However, it is highly unlikely that the solution would hold for long since the Turkish government would only step up pressure with a view to rooting out the PKK, which in turn would retaliate with hit-and-run attacks inside Turkey.
It should not be forgotten that Kurds number between eight and nine million in Turkey, and they have always been a thorn on the side of Turkish government since the turn of the last century. It is highly unlikely that they would ever give up their dream of creating a Kurdistan which would account of a major chunk of Turkish territory.
The only solution at this juncture could come only through dialogue. The PKK should renounce its separatist quest and Ankara should address the concerns of its Kurdish people wherever they are legitimate and do not question of Turkey's sovereignty and territorial sovereignty. That should be the compromise that the US should be seeking. Nothing less would work.
For such is the strength that the Kurds have built over the decades within the region and in Europe. Their "cause" got a major boost when the US backed them against Saddam Hussein after the war over Kuwait in 1991 and gave them a protective umbrella in northern Iraq where they expanded their autonomous regime. Today, the Kurdish area is the most stable part of Iraq.
However, on the other side of the border in Turkey, the Turkish Kurds were restless and they moved into northern Iraq following the ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime. Today, the number of fighters belonging to the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq is estimated at more than 3,000. They are waging a cross-border insurgency against the Turkish government.
The PKK has always waved between the goals of expanded autonomy and statehood for Turkish Kurds, but now it seems to have settled for statehood, a goal also pursued by the Kurds of Iraq, Iran and Syria but opposed by all the regional governments.
The latest in the stand-off is that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is willing to give diplomacy a chance despite having a mandate from the Turkish parliament to launch military attacks the PKK fighters in northern Iraq.
Indeed, there could be a diplomatic solution to the problem since the PKK also seems to be ready for a compromise (it has said it would stop cross-border attacks if the Turkish government called off a military incursion into northern Iraq). However, it is highly unlikely that the solution would hold for long since the Turkish government would only step up pressure with a view to rooting out the PKK, which in turn would retaliate with hit-and-run attacks inside Turkey.
It should not be forgotten that Kurds number between eight and nine million in Turkey, and they have always been a thorn on the side of Turkish government since the turn of the last century. It is highly unlikely that they would ever give up their dream of creating a Kurdistan which would account of a major chunk of Turkish territory.
The only solution at this juncture could come only through dialogue. The PKK should renounce its separatist quest and Ankara should address the concerns of its Kurdish people wherever they are legitimate and do not question of Turkey's sovereignty and territorial sovereignty. That should be the compromise that the US should be seeking. Nothing less would work.
posted by Vivekanand PV at 7:59 AM
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