24 April 2006

1. "Turkish General Vows Intensified Offensives Against Kurdish Rebels", Turkey's army chief vowed stepped-up offensives against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels in comments broadcast Sunday as the military sent thousands of soldiers backed by tanks to its overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast and the Iraqi border.

2. "Talabani Expresses Concern Over Turkish, Iranian Troop Build-Up On The Border", President Jalal Talabani expressed his concern on Sunday over reported Iranian and Turkish troop concentrations on those countries’ borders with Iraq.

3. "Kurdish Rebels Claim Turkey Preparing For Incursion Into Iraq", Turkey's main armed Kurdish rebel group alleged on Saturday that the army was preparing for an incursion into neighbouring Iraq to hunt down its militants, and warned that Ankara would suffer from such a move.

4. "Iran Shells Kurdish Guerilla", Iranian forces shelled Iranian Kurdish rebel positions inside mountainous northern Iraq on Friday to repel an attack, wounding at least four civilians, Iraqi Kurdish officials said.

5. "Turkey and the Kurds", Kurdish unrest in Turkey, which has continued with bombings in Istanbul in recent weeks and almost daily clashes and rioting in the mountains, strains U.S.-Turkey relations at a time when Ankara's support for U.S. policy in the Middle East and against Iran is crucial.

6. "Bomb explodes in western Turkey, no casualties", a bomb exploded in a garbage container in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Friday just seconds before the arrival of a military bus, but there were no casualties, the Anatolia news agency reported.

7. "Bombs rock southeastern Turkey, no casualties", two homemade bombs exploded in the mainly Kurdish city of Batman in southeastern Turkey overnight, causing material damage but no casualties, local security sources said Saturday.

8. "The “Great Kurdistan” threat", no doubt that such a "Great Kurdistan" if unilaterally founded would generate a string of conflicts which will destabilize the whole of the Middle East. Nobody save the United States and Israel has nothing to gain, least of all, the Kurds.

1. - AP - "Turkish General Vows Intensified Offensives Against Kurdish Rebels":

ANKARA / 23 April 2006 / by Suzan Frazer

Turkey's army chief vowed stepped-up offensives against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels in comments broadcast Sunday as the military sent thousands of soldiers backed by tanks to its overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast and the Iraqi border.

"As long as the PKK exists our operations will continue in ever-increasing intensity," Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, the land forces' commander, told CNN-Turk television in an interview aired Sunday. He was referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party which has been battling for autonomy since 1984.

Buyukanit stressed however, that there was nothing unusual in the troop deployment in the region.

"There is nothing extraordinary, there is always some movement in the area," he said. "It is not different from previous years."

Asked whether the military planned to cross into northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK rebels there, Buyukanit said: "I am not saying anything."

Fighting between soldiers and the guerrillas, who are based in northern Iraq, often intensifies in the spring, when the snows melt, clearing mountain passes along the border.

Turkey already has some 2,000 soldiers, backed by tanks, in northern Iraq to guard against cross-border attacks. However, if troops were to cross the border in force, it could potentially destabilize northern Iraq, one of the few stable areas of the country.

The Aksam newspaper reported Friday that Turkey has moved some 10,000 soldiers to the border regions, increasing its troop strength to around 50,000.

Military and intelligence officers, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, have confirmed the deployment of troops to the region but would not say how many troops were involved.

Some 37,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984.

Turkey has called on the United States to crack down on rebel bases in northern Iraq, but U.S. commanders, struggling to battle Iraqi insurgents elsewhere, have been extremely reticent to fight the Kurdish rebels.

2. - AP - "Talabani Expresses Concern Over Turkish, Iranian Troop Build-Up On The Border":

BAGHDAD / 23 April 2006

President Jalal Talabani expressed his concern on Sunday over reported Iranian and Turkish troop concentrations on those countries’ borders with Iraq.

Turkey has moved thousands of troops to the border region in what its military said was an offensive against Turkish Kurd guerrillas.

Iran has also reportedly moved forces to the border, and last week shelled a mountainous region inside Iraq used by Iranian Kurd fighters for infiltration into Iran, according to Iraqi Kurd officials. There were no reports of casualties from Friday’s artillery and rocket barrage.

Talabani said that so far Iranian and Turkish forces have stayed on their sides of the border.

But “I have expressed my concern over these concentrations ... Iraq is a soveriegn independent nation that won’t let other nations interfere in its internal affairs,” he said at a press conference with US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in the northern city of Erbil.

Turkey has called on the United States to crack down on rebel bases in Kurdistan (northern Iraq), but US commanders, struggling to battle Iraqi insurgents elsewhere, have been extremely reticent to fight the rebels, who are based in the remote mountain areas in one of the few stable parts of the country.

Meanwhile, Khalilzad said planned talks between the United States and Iran over stabilizing Iraq must wait until an Iraqi government is formed. Talabani said he would participate in any US-Iran talks.

“We see it as good that after an Iraqi government is formed, this issue can take shape,” Khalilzad said.

“If the United States holds talks alone with Iran without an Iraqi govenrment being formed, that would certainly be a problem for the Iraqi government,” the Afghan-born Khalilzad said, speaking in Dari. Once the governmnent is formed, “we have no problem with meetings with Iranian officials.”

Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki was tapped on Saturday to put together a government and has 30 days to do so.

The talks a rare, direct high-level meeting between the Iran and the United States are to deal exclusively with calming the situation in Iraq, where Iran holds enormous influence.

But Washington is under pressure to negotiate directly with Tehran on the nuclear issue amid rising tensions over Iran’s determination to push ahead with uranium enrichment despite a U.N. Security Council demand it stop the program.

3. - AFP - "Kurdish Rebels Claim Turkey Preparing For Incursion Into Iraq":

ANKARA / 22 April 2006

Turkey's main armed Kurdish rebel group alleged on Saturday that the army was preparing for an incursion into neighbouring Iraq to hunt down its militants, and warned that Ankara would suffer from such a move.

The warning from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) followed Turkish press reports that thousands of additional troops had been deployed in the southeast of the country to intensify operations against Kurdish rebels, who have increasingly begun to infiltrate the region from across the border in northern Iraq.

"We believe the preparations are for a cross-border operation into northern Iraq," Zubeyir Aydar, the head of KONGRA-GEL, the PKK's political wing, told AFP in a telephone interview from Brussels.

"There are only a few thousands (PKK) guerillas at most in southeastern Turkey. It does not make much sense to move so many troops and equipment into the region for them," he said.

Aydar stressed that PKK rebels had made the necessary preparations and would "continue their struggle on the basis of active legitimate defence" against a possible cross-border operation.

"Turkey will suffer from such an operation. It would only lead to more death and pain," he added.

4. - Reuters - "Iran Shells Kurdish Guerilla":

ZAKHO / 22 April 2006

Iranian forces shelled Iranian Kurdish rebel positions inside mountainous northern Iraq on Friday to repel an attack, wounding at least four civilians, Iraqi Kurdish officials said.

"This morning Iranian Kurdish fighters infiltrated the border into the Iranian side and the Iranian army bombed the area and repelled them. The shelling hit Iraqi land at Sidakan," said Saadi Pira, an official in Iraq's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party.

The governor of the Arbil region, Nawzad Hadi, said four civilians had been wounded in the shelling of the rebels of the Iranian Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Sidakan is about 80 km (50 miles) north of the Iraqi city of Arbil and about 10 km (6 miles) from the Iranian border.

The pro-PKK Firat Web site and a rebel spokesman said six Iranian soldiers and five Kurdish guerrillas had been killed. It was not possible to independently confirm that claim.

The incident could fuel tensions in Iraq, where Sunni Arab leaders accuse Shi'ite Iran of meddling in the country's internal affairs.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have previously clashed with PJAK rebels in Iran's restive western borderlands.

Security experts say PJAK is an Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whose armed struggle has regained momentum in southeast Turkey since it called off a unilateral cease-fire in the summer of 2004.

REBEL BASES

Turkey has long been concerned about PKK rebel bases in northern Iraq, which it frequently attacked before the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Dozens of guerrillas and members of Turkey's security forces have been killed in fighting in recent months, and a group linked to the PKK has claimed responsibility for several bomb attacks in Istanbul.

Ankara, which has up to 250,000 troops in southeast Turkey, has sent an extra 40,000 soldiers to the area to prepare for an expected rise in PKK incursions from northern Iraq, a senior Turkish military official said on Thursday.

Turkey's Daily Aksam said on Friday 50,000 troops were massed at the borders with Iran and Iraq and the army planned to extend its fight against the PKK beyond Turkey's borders.

Iraqi Kurdish officials said they were concerned by reports Turkey was deploying troops for possible attacks on PKK rebels.

But a military official in Turkey's southeast said operations over the Iraqi border were not expected.

"We have had some activities near the (Iraqi) border from time to time but (now) we have not had any. When we have any activity beyond the borders, the public would be informed," he told Reuters.

Western diplomats in Ankara said they were not aware of specific plans by the army to fight the PKK in Iraq. The United States has made clear its opposition to any such cross-border action. Ankara is pressing the Americans to flush out the PKK.

Turkey has long been concerned about the regional autonomy enjoyed by Iraqi Kurds, fearing it might encourage similar aspirations among its own Kurdish population.

5. - The Washington Times - "Turkey and the Kurds":

23 April 2006

Kurdish unrest in Turkey, which has continued with bombings in Istanbul in recent weeks and almost daily clashes and rioting in the mountains, strains U.S.-Turkey relations at a time when Ankara's support for U.S. policy in the Middle East and against Iran is crucial. Winning Turkish support to confront the Iran issue will be a challenging task, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to steer Turkey toward friendly relationships with all its Arab neighbors while continuing to pursue accession into the European Union. Losing Turkish support would be a difficult setback for the United States.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the region next week, where she will face the challenge of maintaining the delicate balance the United States has struck. Washington's approach must include building a stronger alliance with Turkey, keeping the Iraqi Kurds involved in the governing process in Iraq and opposing acts of violence, which are mostly the work of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Washington should also be concerned that Turkey, a secular Muslim democracy and bridge between the Western and Muslim worlds, has seen fundamentalism rise and pro-American sentiment erode so much that the overwhelming majority of Turks now consider the United States as the biggest obstacle to peace.

Turks see Kurdish sovereignty in Iraq as a threat to the integrity of their state: They regard a fully autonomous Kurdish state in Iraq as a precursor to a stronger push for independence and more divisive civil strife among the Turkish Kurds. Playing on these concerns, the Iranian ambassador to Turkey asserted that "the U.S. will carve pieces from us for a Kurdish state." The Turkish government is not alone in its distaste for the idea of a Kurdish state; Ayad Jamal al Din, a Shi'ite Iraqi legislator who represents the southern city of Nasiriya, told editors and reporters at The Washington Times earlier this month that many Iraqis also want a stronger central government and less Kurdish autonomy. Mr. Erdogan's statements indicate he is on the right track, proposing to engage the Kurds as citizens and promising "more roads, more hospitals, more schools and places of work," along with "more freedom, more democracy, more welfare, more rights and justice."

Relations with Turkey soured as a result of that nation's refusal in 2003 to allow U.S. troops to use Turkey's territorial border with Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom -- a decision that low point in the 50-year alliance between the United States and Turkey. The subsequent arrest of Turkish soldiers in Iraq by U.S. forces, which has been inaccurately interpreted in Turkish popular culture as a sign of American support for the Kurds over the Turks, did nothing to help rebuild the relationship. Today most of the PKK clashes with Turkish military occur in the Southeast mountain region, and reports abound of PKK guerillas operating out of camps in Northern Iraq and fighting with weapons supplied from Iraq.

This is a pressing issue for Mr. Erdogan and his government, and Washington should not let Ankara think that the United States restricts Turkey's ability to fight the PKK. Such a conclusion would risk pushing Turkey closer to its Muslim neighbors, including Iran, at the expense of its Western ties.

The alliance has been on the mend, but the process hasn't happened quickly enough. Polls show public opinion regarding the United States in Turkey is resoundingly negative, and Turkish opposition to American action against Iran is strong. When Miss Rice visits Turkey next week, ensuring that the pre-Iraq failure was not an indicator of how the alliance will function when tested should top the agenda. Clearly, this is a daunting challenge, and one that will require a Bismarckian level of diplomacy.

6. - "Bomb explodes in western Turkey, no casualties":

ANKARA / 21 April 2006

A bomb exploded in a garbage container in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Friday just seconds before the arrival of a military bus, but there were no casualties, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Police suspect the bomb was made of A-4 plastic explosive, often used by Kurdish militants, and detonated by remote control, officials told the agency.

The explosion occurred at around 7:30 a.m. (0430 GMT) in a residential neighborhood, shattering windows and damaging parked cars.

Television footage showed police sealing off the site of the blast as a woman escorted a schoolboy across a street littered with metal and glass debris.

Witnesses said the explosion took place seconds before a bus carrying military personnel arrived at the site.

Residents displayed Turkish flags at their windows and balconies to symbolically condemn "terrorists" -- the official term for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Several bomb explosions in Turkish cities have been blamed on the PKK since late March, when a week of deadly Kurdish riots rattled urban centers in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

At least two of the bombings, which killed one and wounded several others, were claimed as reprisal against police response to the riots, in which 16 people were killed, by a radical Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), which officials say is a front for the PKK.

Separately, officials told Anatolia that the police in Izmir detained an alleged Kurdish militant suspected of carrying out an earlier bomb attack in the city and a suspected accomplice.

A street vendor's cart loaded with plastic explosives went off after being rolled down a hill towards a police building on March 4, injuring one person. The TAK claimed responsibility for the blast.

Police discovered a similar, newly bought cart in the house of the suspected bomber, which might have been destined for another attack, Anatolia said.

The suspect was also believed to be responsible for planting a bomb in a flower pot left at a bus station in Izmir on March 30, which the police defused.

7. - AFP - "Bombs rock southeastern Turkey, no casualties":

DIYARBAKIR / 22 April 2006

Two homemade bombs exploded in the mainly Kurdish city of Batman in southeastern Turkey overnight, causing material damage but no casualties, local security sources said Saturday.

The bombs, placed in front of two shops 500 metres (yards) apart from each other in the centre of the city, went off at 3:00 am (OOOO GMT), blowing out the windows of nearby buildings, the sources said.

It was not clear who had planted the bombs.

Southeastern Turkey has been the scene of a 22-year armed conflict between the Turkish army and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which picked up arms against Ankara in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in the region.

More than 37,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Several recent bomb explosions in Turkish cities have been blamed on the PKK and a radical off-shoot since late March, when a week of deadly Kurdish riots rattled urban centers in the southeast.

8. uruknet.info - "The “Great Kurdistan” threat":

22 April 2006 / by Gilles Munier

Numbering 30 millions, Kurds are distributed over four countries, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. In Iraq, Massud Bargain and Jalal Talabani are said to be in a position to declare the independence of Kurdistan. The map of the new State as submitted last July to the "National Assembly" comprises territories over which the Kurds cannot have any claim…but which are oil-soaked. No doubt that such a "Great Kurdistan" if unilaterally founded would generate a string of conflicts which will destabilize the whole of the Middle East. Nobody save the United States and Israel has nothing to gain, least of all, the Kurds.

The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, art 62, repealed by the Lausanne Treaty in July 1923, made provision for "local self-rule" of territories "where the Kurdish element was dominant". A map of Kurdistan, which could be to-day labelled as "the Very Large Kurdistan" and was handed over at Sevres by the Kurdish delegation extended from the coastline of the Mediterranean to the Arab Gulf….Something totally unacceptable for the big powers of the days –France, Great Britain- for Turkey, the Arabs and the Armenians who claim lands which the Kurds wished to lay their hands on.

In Mesopotamia, it incorporated the Willayet of Mossul, the Sindjar close to the Syrian border, the Sulimaniya region, Kirkuk and stopped at Qanaqin, in the north-east of Baghdad on the border with Persia. As an answer to that claim, the British planned to set up a Kurdish kingdom in the north of the Mossul Willayet only. In doing so they intended to undermine the Turks who had their eyes locked on Mossul. The project was abandoned after the creation of Iraq (1) because the north of Iraq had revealed huge oil resources.

Kurdish revolts in Iraq

Ever since all Kurdish revolts in Iraq have erupted in the name of home rule but the question of the administrative borders has scarcely been tackled.

For the pro-British Prime Minister Nouri Said, born by a Kurdish mother, home rule was not the prime goal of the insurgents. In October 1930, he reported the results of talks with them to the High Commissioner in Baghdad : " First, it was a question of guarantees …then the Kurds showed their discontent at the existing administration,…then they demanded a quasi autonomy and now it comes to secession"(2).

Never during the Ottoman Empire has Iraqi Kurdistan existed as a State in the Western sense of the word. There were Kurdish principalities more or less dependent on the Sultan in Istanbul, but they covered a very small part of Kurdistan.

The Sheikh Mahmud Berzendji, self-proclaimed "humkudar" (king) of Kurdistan in 1922 ruled over the Sulumanyia region and the Kirkuk members of his council, actually his henchmen- were all…Turkmen. His rebellion was crashed in a heavy-handed manner by the British and he was deported to the south of Iraq.

Another revolt in 1931: Sheikh Ahmed Barzani, - a colourful man who had in mind to go over to Christianity with his tribe- succeeded in gaining control of a territory stretching from the Turkish border to Aqra, in the north of Mossul. The RAF shelled his HQ and he fled to Turkey.

His brother, Mustapha Barzani took over and went to Iran with over a thousand fighters eager to assist the small Republic of Mahabad born on January 22, 1946. Deserted by its Soviet ally, Mahabad fell less than a year later. Its President Qazi Muhammad was sentenced to death and hanged. Mustapha Barzani took shelter in the Soviet Union.

Mustapha Barzani " Kassem’s Soldier"

Barzani’s return to Baghdad eleven years later, after the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy by General Abdel Karim Kassem was a triumph. Several Kurdish ministers among them Sheikh Mahmud’s son joined the government. Against the commitment that the Kurds "national rights" within the "Iraqi entity" would be guaranteed alongside with the publishing of Kurdish newspapers, Barzani branded himself " Kassem’s Soldier" and helped the "Zaim" (the Leader) as Kassem was named to repress in a bloodbath an Arab nationalist revolt led by Colonel Abdel Wahab Chawaf in Mossul. The colonel was given the fatal blow on his hospital bed. Four hundred of his followers – in particular Shammar Beduins - were massacred in a mosque by Kurdish militias and the "People’s Resistance Forces".

But Barzani’s support went farther. In May 1959, he lent a hand to the Iraqi army in quashing a revolt of Kurds chiefs in the Rawanduz area. More than 24 000 Kurds fled to Turkey and Iran!

Relationships between Barzani and General Kassem deteriorated after a long stay of Barzani in Moscow, the Soviets signalling thus that they did not appreciate the "Zaim" decision to evict the Iraqi Communist Party from power. Once Barzani back in the mountains, the war flared up again. However, the demands that he put forward to Kassem in March 1962 were strangely mild. They dealt with the opening of schools, agricultural and industrial development, and the recognition of the Kurdish language. No question of self-rule or borders.

Self-rule demands

On February 8th,, 1963, the Baathists and the Nasserians toppled Kassem and Abdul Salam Aref came to power. On March 4th,1963, Barzani handed over a list of claims with an ultimatum to a delegation from Baghdad at the meeting of Kani Maran (the Snakes spring) in which he made a demand for self-rule for a region composed of the liwas (provinces) of Sulamayia, Kirkuk, Arbil and the districts of the liwas of Mossul and Diyala as well as the share-out of the oil income among Arabs and Kurds. If this was rejected, he threatened to resume the fighting within three days.

As foreseen, Baghdad did not meet the unrealistic demands of Barzani which was what he wanted. General Aref however did concede to the "national rights of the Kurdish people" on the basis of decentralisation. It was a tremendous progress given the then political environment in the Middle East. However, the bidding went up. In April 1963, Jalal Talabani, head of the progressive current within the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, demanded the replacement of Iraq by a bi-national State. For Baghdad, it was a provocation. The Kurds blew up oil installations in Kirkuk !

In November 1963, Aref removed the Baathists from power and Barzani’s claims suddenly became less urgent. The DPK accused him of softening and Talabani had to run away to Iran. His followers were chased by Obeidollah Barzani.

In 1964, new turnabout: Mustapha Barzani rejected the return of "liberated zones" under the control of Baghdad. He concluded a secret alliance with the Shah of Iran, the financial and military assistance of which - as well as the United States’ and Israel’- enabled him to control a mountainous territory from the Syrian border to Qabaqin , leaving out the big Kurdish cities. Jalal Talabani sided with Baghdad and took part with his Kurdish units of mercenaries in the battle of Hendrin Mount (2875m) against Idriss Barzani and his 1700 pershmergas.

Self-rule for the Kurds in the offing

On July 1968, 17, General Abdel Rahman Aref –who took over after the death of his brother in a helicopter crash- is overthrown. The Baath led by General Hassan al Bakr came to power and as a start, decided to support Jalal Talabani who was hunting down the Barzanists for the Baathists. …The fighting was fierce against the background of the latent Iraqo-Iranian conflict until Saddam Hussein then Vice President of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) was put in charge of negotiating with the insurgents.

On March 1970, 11 Arabs and Kurds reached a historical agreement whereby self-rule would be granted, within four years, to governorates inhabited mainly by Kurds. The Kurdish language was to become one of the official language along with Arabic in the autonomous region, the Vice President of the Republic of Iraq had to be a Kurd and the mercenary units of Talabani, be decommissioned. At last, the DPK was allowed to resume its activities and publish his mouthpiece "Al Taakki".

During the four ensuing years, the administrative borderline and the statute of the autonomous region were heatedly discussed by Saddam Hussein and the DPK. Idriss Barzani, in the name of his father, using a XVIIIth century map demanded the integration to the future autonomous region of the Sindjar –including the Aïn Zaleh oilfield- Kirkuk and Kanaqin. Saddam Hussein could not agree to granting territorial rights to Kurds in the regions where they did not compose the majority of inhabitants, even it had been so in the past (3).

Finally, the selected governorates were: Dohuk, Arbil, Sulimayia. Kirkuk governorate with its numerous "multiethnic sectors" that is composed of "several non-Kurdish minorities, such as the Turkmen"- was excluded from the blueprint for an autonomous province.

The Autonomous Region of Kurdistan

Despite this obvious progress, Mustapha Barzani held his ground as he feared that the autonomy would jeopardize the power of the feudal chiefs which the peasants served like in the Middle Ages. He certainly did not favour the implementation in Kurdistan of the agrarian reform carried out in the rest of the country. As usual, he bid further by reiterating his demand over Kirkuk and the share-out of oil income in relation with the number of people in those regions. Financial autonomy he said is more vital than administrative autonomy. Saddam Hussein refused again saying that a State has to treat all regions equally in terms of development regardless of the number of its inhabitants. For Saddam Hussein, Barzani spoke of a confederation no longer of a autonomy.

The signing of the Iraqi-Soviet friendship Treaty in April 1972 and the nationalisation of the Iraq Petroleum Company( IPC) brought about a change and gave Barzani an other opportunity to resume the fighting. As soon as May 1972, the CIA covertly financed his activities. Therefore, when on March, 11th, 1974, self-rule was granted to the Kurds, he dispelled it. He later acknowledged before Paul Balta, journalist with Le Monde, : " that Israel, the Shah of Iran and the United States had strongly convinced him to refuse the agreement in the belief that the Kurds would launch a guerrilla warfare to weaken Saddam Hussein whose modernisation plan for Iraq was a serious concern for the United States and their great ally Israel" (4). In an interview with the Washington Post, June 22, 1973, he pledged to serve the US policy in the region and if the US aid was "substantial" "to take control of the Kirkuk oilfields and entrust their exploitation to an US company". According to the 1975 Pike Report of the CIA, he was prepared to register Kurdistan as the 51the State of the United States!

The DPK split. Obeidallah Barzani, "sell out" for his father was tempted by the autonomy experience as negotiated and was therefore made minister of State in April 1974. Several members of the DPK politburo set up a rival party in Baghdad and until April 2003, the question of the Kurdistan borders lie dormant.

The Kurdish insurgency held its ground up to the Algiers Agreement signed by Saddam Hussein and the Shah whereby they secretly agreed to stop supporting their respective opposition groups. Within a short period, the Kurdish guerrilla collapsed. Mustapha Barzani died of a cancer in the US where he has taken up residence with his son.

De facto independence

With the outbreak of the First Gulf War (1980-1988) so called Iraq-Iran War, the insurgency was afresh but the repression is horrendous. With the Anfal operation of Ali Hass Al Majidi, a security zone is secured along the borders: villages are destroyed and their population displaced and regrouped. Every encroachment of the Iranian army is met with combat gas by each waring side like at the very controversial battle of Hallabja. All through, the regional government based in Arbil kept on his normal activities.

After the cease-fire signed by Iran on July 18th, 1988, the lull was short-lived. Iraqi divisions entered Koweit in August 1990, and this led to the Second Gulf War and to the setting up in April 1991 of an illegitimate free-zone north of the 36th parallel. Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani were free to do as they pleased for the next 13 years.

The unacceptable borders of the Iraqi "Great Kurdistan"

To-day, Barzani’s son, is the President of the Autonomous Region and Jala Talabani , the "President of the Republic". They have for a while kept their squabbling down and have annexed lands outside the Autonomous Region. They do not have to fear the Iraqi army, dismantled by Paul Bremer and they forbid any military force made up of Arabs to enter the region under their grip. Their militias, trained, armed and supported by the Americans and the Israelis are ready to seize by force Kirkuk, the Sindjar and Qanaqin.

The map as submitted to the National Assembly in July 2005 by Mullah Bakhtiyar, member of the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) comprises the whole governorate of Nineveh, that is to say Mossul, Tell Afar (5% of Kurds, 75% of Turkmen), the Sindjar (Yezidi) and a large portion of the Djezire plateau, Kirkuk and Tuz Kurmatu –the whole of the Turkmeneli, Turkmen country- then it cuts across Baqubah, moves around Baghdad, fifteen kms north, then down to the south-east to Jassan and Badra on the border with Iran. The mountain range of Hamrin serves as a boundary in the north between Arabs and Kurds. This seems to be not enough for some Kurdish fundamentalists who argue that Salah Eddine (Saladin) being born in Tikrit (south of Hamrin) means that the town was Kurdish.

The drawing of Kurdistan based on "historical and geographical facts" according to Bakhtiyar was approved by the Kurdish Parliament. The Kurdish people, he said, may be willing to discuss privileges or ministerial functions, but the borders of Kurdistan are a line not be crossed. (5). The Kurdish leaders might as well consider that all Kurds living in Iraq outside Kurdistan be under the jurisdiction of the Kurdish State and regarded as privileged citizens as requested by Barzani in his counter-proposal on the autonomous region project.

Jalal Talabani has put forward to the Turkmen an autonomous plan (7)…within the would-be State of Kurdistan but the mistrust is there because lands which would be allotted to them were not mentioned. In the "Great Kurdistan" Project, Yezidis and Shabaks (8) who are neither Kurds nor Arabs in their opinion are being turned into "Kurds". Assyrians are labelled Kurds because they speak the language and the Chaldeans are said to be Arabs, for the opposite reason, as if to mean that the religious schism between them bears ethnical roots.

Barzani and Talabani are asking too much. They should be satisfied with their own territory and embark on long-pending social reforms. Otherwise, they can just expect more riots and violence as in Halabja last March where demonstrators destroyed a shrine.

Who can really believe that Arabs and Turkmen will ratify the policy of fait accompli ? They will not be ripped off their national rights or of their lands. There will be more wars and the American and Israeli 'friends" may not always be prepared to answer the call of the feudal Kurds.