Turkish Daily News has a good article up about Iraqi Kurds, and the role they play in Iraq nowadays. And, of course, their attitude towards the PKK. In short: “Iraqi Kurdish leaders want to mend their relationships with Turkey but are still not on the same page with Ankara regarding the necessity to fight the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).”

Iraqi Kurds feel they are trapped between Iraqi Arabs and Iran and believe they have been let down by the Americans, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute. Cagaptay was in northern Iraq last week as a delegation from the Washington-based think tank went to the region to talk with Iraqi Kurdish authorities. The delegation was in Ankara Thursday to brief officials from the Turkish government.

‘Our first finding is that the Kurds have lost their numerical strength and political weight within the central Iraqi administration,’ said Cagaptay in an interview with the Turkish Daily News. The end of the boycott of the Iraqi parliament by Sunni Arabs seems to have eroded the numerical strength of Iraqi Kurds. Thanks to the surge of American troops, northern Iraq is no longer the only stable region in Iraq, as the rest of the country has become largely stable, despite exceptions in certain areas. Add to this fact the increasing cooperation between the United States and the Sunnis, and this explains, the erosion in Kurds’ political weight, said Cagaptay.

‘The authorities of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) feel they bump into an Arab bloc on every issue,’ said Cagaptay, who held talks in Arbil, Suleymania and Dohuk. The KRG is facing a Sunni-Shiite bloc mainly on the government budget, the hydrocarbon law, and the issue of the status of Kirkuk. Payment of the salaries of the Peshmerga, the Kurdish military force, by the central administration is also an issue of contention between Baghdad and the KRG.

Cagaptay went on to say: “Kurds are very disappointed that they are losing their former weight in the Iraqi central administration.” If that’s not enough, Iraqi Kurds aren’t exactly satisfied by the American government either. “They are concerned by Iranian intelligence units and Tehran’s support of radical Islamic groups in the region. If they cross Tehran, they feel it might hurt them through these assets,” he said.

The KRG wants to have a better relationship with Turkey, but it disagrees with the Turks on the most important issue of all: the PKK. “They do not recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization, and furthermore, the border between the enclaves of the PKK and the KRG is not sealed,” Cagaptay said.

So, what has to be done. Easy, Cagaptay says. “The U.S. needs to put pressure on the KRG for action against the PKK.”

If the KRG truly wants to improve the relationship with Turkey, it has to recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization and fight the PKK, and / or it needs to convince the PKK that it should dissolve itself and work for the KRG. It will take a lot of pressure to get the KRG to do so though. And that’s a job for the US. The US has a reasonably good relationship with both the KRG and Turkey and stability in the region is in America’s own interest.

In short; when will the media ask the presidential candidates what they plan to do about this?