The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 71/No. 42      November 12, 2007

 
Turkish gov’t pounds Kurd
rebel bases on Iraqi border
(front page)
 
BY SAM MANUEL  
WASHINGTON, October 30—The Turkish government has intensified military operations along the border with northern Iraq, targeting guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounded PKK bases in southeastern Turkey, as tens of thousands of Turkish troops massed on the border.

Meanwhile, the speaker of Iraq’s parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, warned that his government would cut off the flow of oil to Turkey if Ankara made good on threats to impose economic sanctions on northern Iraq. The Turkish government said it was considering sanctions as an alternative to a military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan, where the guerrillas are based.

U.S. officials have pressed Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to rein in the PKK and have called on the Iraqi government in Baghdad to disrupt the rebels’ supply lines.

Kurds are an oppressed nationality living in parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria who have long waged a struggle for self-determination. The PKK, of Maoist origin, has for decades led a guerrilla war for Kurdish sovereignty in southeastern Turkey.

Tensions between leaders of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq and the Turkish government escalated after 12 Turkish soldiers were killed in an October 21 ambush by PKK guerrillas. Ankara says the PKK carries out attacks on Turkish troops from mountain fortresses in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Turkish government has massed 100,000 troops along its border with Iraqi Kurdistan. In addition to cross-border military strikes, some 8,000 troops are carrying out antiguerrilla operations in the mostly Kurdish provinces of Tunceli and Sirnak in southeastern Turkey.

Baghdad’s threat to cut off the oil flow to the Turkish port of Ceyhan has alarmed U.S. and other imperialist energy cartels. World crude oil futures have shot up to record highs.

Iraq exports 1.6 million to 2.1 million barrels of crude oil a day. Most is shipped through the port of Basra in southern Iraq, but 100,000 barrels a day flow through a pipeline from Kirkuk oilfields in northern Iraq to Ceyhan.

Turkey collects hundreds of millions each year in transit fees from the pipeline shipments. Hundreds of miles of the pipeline cross Turkish areas with a significant Kurdish population. Over the years the pipeline has come under repeated attacks by the PKK.  
 
Turkish sanctions
Ankara has said it is considering cutting off supplies of electricity, cement, iron, paper, and food to northern Iraq. Iraqi Kurdistan depends on trade with Turkey for most of its vital supplies. Turkish contractors are building roads, hospitals, housing, and other infrastructure in the region.

Turkey’s capitalist rulers have used the PKK attacks to fan anti-Kurdish chauvinism. In Ankara, Reuters reported, “warplanes swooped, tanks rolled and troops marched past President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and senior generals in a display of military might” October 29. At a similar parade in Istanbul, “flag-waving patriots clapped loudly as tanks drove past….Many people carried pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,” Turkey’s national hero.” Turkey, a U.S. ally, has the second largest armed forces in NATO.

Washington and its client regime in Baghdad have been working hard to avoid a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq. Since the 2003 U.S. invasion, Iraqi Kurdistan has been the most stable region in the country, and leaders of the KRG are among the most reliable allies of the U.S. occupation.

The Shiite-led regime in Baghdad has no effective presence or influence in Iraqi Kurdistan. The KRG says it is unable to dislodge the PKK from the mountains or arrest its leaders.

But reporters in the region easily travel to PKK camps and conduct interviews with the group’s commanders. Resentment of Turkish repression and public sympathy for the PKK in Kurdish towns is “enormous,” a New York Times correspondent reported in an October 28 article. PKK fighters procure supplies and health care from the population.
 
 
Related articles:
Regional actions demand an end to war in Iraq
Young Socialists demand: ‘Bring troops home now!’ and ‘Free the Cuban 5!’  
 
 
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