Iraq’s Kurds, Turkish Officials Meet in Baghdad
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that a delegation of Iraq’s Kurdish leadership and Turkish government officials met with each other in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, earlier that day.
The Turks pressed Mahmoud Barzani, the president of the three-province semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, to crack down on the PKK in the region he is supposed to be in control of.
Incidentally, the meeting was held shortly after Turkish media reported that another five Turkish soldiers were killed by PKK terrorists.
Remarkably, whenever the Turks tell Iraq’s Kurds to crack down on the PKK, Kurdish authorities say there is not much they can do. At the same time, however, Iraqi ‘Kurdistan’ is the most stable region of Iraq because, thus claim the Iraqi government and Kurdish authorities, the people there are quite united and the government able to establish its authority.
It does not take a rocket scientists to conclude that something is amiss.
Turkey has talked to Iraq’s Kurds more often in the past, but not directly with Barzani himself, who the Turks consider to be, if not an active leader of the PKK and therefore partially responsible for the many Turkish deaths in the 24 years since the PKK launched its attack on Turkish targets everywhere, than at least as someone who lets them carry out their terrorist attacks, and gives spiritually support to their war.
We will see what happens: I’m not terribly hopeful. It seems to me that the Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq first have to be shown that if they do not cooperate, they will suffer just as much as the Turks, if not more.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
