Our Friends the Turks? By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 5, 2003	Home   Search   Forum   Terms

About 100 U.S. troops raided a Turkish military facility today in northern Iraq. The Americans arrested eleven Turkish special forces personnel. According to one of Turkey's largest newspapers, Hurriyet, the "U.S. forces were acting on intelligence reports that some Turks in Kirkuk were planning to assassinate the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk." Turkey has long maintained a military presence in and around northern Iraq to deal with its Kurdish "problem."

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan demanded that the U.S. release his soldiers. Hurriyet quoted him saying:

This is an ugly incident. It should not have happened. For an allied country to behave in such a way toward its ally cannot be explained.

Oh, poor baby Erdogan. I suppose he wants to be able to carry out surreptitious military exercises in Iraqi areas under U.S. military control. We shouldn't allow anything of the sort to happen. We aren't. The last thing we need is for the Turks to throw gasoline on the fire and turn northern Iraq into a state of all-out chaos (civil war).

Northern Iraq has a large Kurdish population, as do parts of Turkey, Syria, and Iran. All three countries have long feared that Kurds will establish their own state. For example, Turkey and its Kurdish minority fought an awful civil war in the 80's and 90's in which 30,000 people were killed. Turkey has a track record of human rights violations against its Kurdish minority, for example, displacing thousands of Kurds from their homes. And we shouldn't forget that some Kurds have used the evil of terrorism against Turks.

The Kurds deserve self-determination as do all peoples (as long as they don't use terrorism). Turkey needs to do much better in the way it treats its Kurdish minority. As a democracy, you think it would. You've got to wonder about the quality of Turkey's democracy, when you consider its censorship of media on issues like the "military, Kurds and political Islam." I'm sure Syria and Iran will do absolutely nothing positive for the Kurds until after their corrupt dictatorships are overthrown. The Kurdish issue is only one of the problems Turkey has now in its relationship with the U.S.

First, the Turkish government refused to allow American troops into Turkey for Operation: Iraqi Freedom. Today is the second time this year that the Turkish military has tried to interfere in northern Iraq. The Turkish military keeps kicking around its Kurdish minority. The Turkish state censors its media. Turkey elected an Islamist-leaning government in 2002.

Seems that Turkey has a lot to do before America can consider it a true friend.