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Lethal wakeup call for
Kurds
By Hilmi Toros
ISTANBUL
- The suicide bombings on Sunday in the normally
tranquil north of Iraq have brought new uncertainty five
months before the United States is due to cede political
power to Iraqis. The bombing at the offices of two
Kurdish groups allied closely to the United States
spread shock waves through Kurdish areas, apart from
killing at least 65 people and wounding more than 250.
In one attack a man apparently dressed as a
cleric blew himself up during Eid-al-Adha celebrations
at the offices of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) in
Irbil, about 560 kilometers north of Baghdad. A few
kilometers away, a similar bombing rocked a festival
reception hosted by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK).
The twin suicide attacks killed more
than 60 people, including senior members of the KDP. KDP
leader Massoud Barzani and PUK chief Jalal Talabani were
not in Irbil at the time. The former rivals have been
coming together to push for a stronger Kurdish say in
the future of Iraq. The two leaders said the attacks
only increase their resolve to unite in the north.
This first major suicide bombing
in Iraq was the deadliest attack since a
car bomb killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and more
than 100 others in Najaf last August 29. Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, blamed the attacks on the
Ansar al-Islam, a radical group believed to be linked
to al-Qaeda. No group has claimed responsibility for
the attack. But if an Arab connection were found, it would
increase tension between Arabs and Kurds.
Why now in the relatively calm north, and what
next for Iraq? The attacks followed reports that Kurdish
groups had helped the US capture Saddam Hussein. They
come also at a time of ferment in the "Kurdish question"
that has dogged the region for decades.
Kurds,
about 15-20 percent of the Iraqi population of some 24
million, are the majority in the north. They allied
themselves with the US-led invasion coalition last year.
They have been administering the area under protection
of an air umbrella provided by US and British forces
since the 1991 Gulf War. US Secretary of State Colin
Powell has praised theirs as a "model" administration.
Before
the United States pulls out, the Kurds want their
gains formalized in a new Iraq. "Our gains are
irreversible," Iraqi Kurdish leader Necirvan Barzani
told the Turkish Daily News. "We cannot return to a
situation where we were several years ago."
Kurdish leaders
have proposed an Arab-Kurd federation, with Shi'ite
Arabs ruling the south and Kurds the north. "Kurds
have the right to self-determination," UK-based Kurdish
leader Siamand Banna said on Monday. He said the
federation proposed by the Kurds would be "within a
unified Iraq" and that the oil wealth of Kirkuk in the
north would be shared with Arabs in the south.
There is opposition to such plans both within
and outside Iraq. Non-Kurdish people in the north oppose
the Kurds' proposal. These include Sunni Arabs pushed up
north during Saddam Hussein's "Arabization" drive and
Turkmens, a minority of Turkic stock. For Kirkuk city,
the Kurds are proposing a special administration with
representation from all minorities.
If the US
carries the trump card, it has not made its position
clear yet. During Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan's visit to Washington last week, President
George W Bush and Powell said only that the unity of
Iraq would be maintained, without elaborating.
Erdogan says the Kurdish proposal is
"unhealthy" and is likely to destabilize the region.
Turkey, Iran and Syria have their own Kurdish minorities
and fear that an independent Kurdistan or an autonomous
one within a loose Iraq federation may set off similar
demands by Kurds elsewhere.
But US Deputy Secretary
of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told Turkish television that
any federation in Iraq would be based on geography, not
ethnicity. The remark by Wolfowitz is being interpreted
as a sign that the US administration sees Turkey again
as a strategic Middle East partner more vital than its
debt to Iraqi Kurds for their unflinching pro-US stand.
Turkey had refused to join the invasion of Iraq,
denying coalition forces a northern front against the
forces of Saddam, and placing a 50-year US-Turkish
partnership in jeopardy. The coalition forces linked up
with Iraqi Kurds in taking over the north.
Wolfowitz now says of US-Turkish relations: "Our
strategic partnership has changed - military relations
of course do exist, but the new strategic partnership is
not based on a military field but rather on democracy
and politics."
Turkish commentator Mehmet
Ali Birand says Bush has a "greater Middle East
project" and "at the heart of this project lies an
objective to achieve transition to democracy in Middle
Eastern countries. And precisely from this perspective,
Turkey is now the new favorite of the Bush
administration." Birand expects Turkey to be a role
model and become active in a democratization process in
the Middle East. That would give it a larger say in what
happens in northern Iraq.
(Inter Press
Service)
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