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DIVISION OF IRAQ BECOMES TURKEY'S MAIN CONCERN
By Murat Yetkin
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Dec 26 2011
Despite the fact that Turkish politics was almost totally occupied
with French Parliamentary vote to criminalize the denial of Armenian
genocide allegations, Iraq was raised to the first rank among Turkey's
foreign and security policy worries last week.
The reason was a court order against Tariq al-Hashemi, the deputy to
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani. Accused of subversive acts against
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, Hashemi immediately left
Baghdad to hide in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) controlled
northern sector of Iraq, bordering Iran and Turkey.
This development was alarming in Ankara, since al-Hashemi belongs to
the Sunni sect of Islam, whereas al-Maliki is Shiite and Talabani is
of Kurdish origin. Therefore in one single incident all main ethnical
and religious fault lines in Iraq were shaken and on the day after
the last American soldier left Iraq for Kuwait.
Ankara has been expecting something bad to happen after U.S. troops
evacuated following U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta's visits to Iraq earlier December. But as one
ranking Turkish official told me last week, "We thought the al-Maliki
government or Shiite powers in general would wait until the official
end of American presence by the end of the month." They did not expect
that al-Maliki was going to use the 'surprise factor.'
Al-Maliki immediately issued a statement calling Massoud Barzani, the
head of the KRG to send al-Hashemi to Baghdad for trials and should
not let him to go to another country. Since al-Hashemi would not go
to Iran or Syria under control of Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of
Iran, the only country al-Maliki meant was Turkey. Al-Hashemi made
an appearance the next day in Arbil, where Barzani's headquarters
are and then went to Sulaymaniyah, President Talabani's hometown.
In an interview in Sulaymaniyah with Aslı AydıntaÅ~_baÅ~_ of Turkey's
Milliyet newspaper yesterday, al-Hashemi linked the stability of Iraq
with stability of Turkey.
That is exactly the reason for Ankara's worries. Ankara believes that
Iran is behind what is happening in Iraq nowadays. "Tehran would
like to see an Iraq under Shiite control," one high ranking source
explained how Ankara considered the situation. "If they understand
that this would not be possible then they might want to secure at
least the Shiite populated south of the country."
That might lead up to division of the country and the Kurdish region
in the north will be left with one option only - even if they declare
an independent Kurdistan - in order to survive and that would be to
be attached to Turkey which would be an exit for their oil and gas
production and also protection. Speaking of security, both Turkish
and Iraqi Kurdish officials are aware that the issue of the armed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in the KRG region to carry out
attacks in Turkey will not be an item untouched.
A divided Iraq will have serious affects on Turkey's own Kurdish
problem and bring additional security burdens. But the troublesome PKK
presence in Iraq could also turn into a bargaining chip in Barzani's
hands in his encounters with Turkey.
On the other hand, the Shiite region has Basra as the biggest Iraqi
city on the shores of the Persian Gulf, where the oil and gas terminals
pump some 40 percent of exports to outer markets.
Iran has started a 10-day military exercise in the strait of
Hurmuz, the narrow outlet of the Gulf. And Iranian Chief of Staff
General Hassan Firouzabadi said yesterday Iran was "ready to expand
military links with Iraq," only to be welcomed by Saadoun Al-Dulaimi,
al-Maliki's acting Defense Minister. Iran also does not hide its
disturbance from Turkey's getting ready to activate the NATO Missile
Shield radar this week. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's timing in his visit to
Armenia three days ago was noted in Ankara.
Those are the reasons why Iraq is now a bigger headache for Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan than Syria and France.
From: Baghdasarian
By Murat Yetkin
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Dec 26 2011
Despite the fact that Turkish politics was almost totally occupied
with French Parliamentary vote to criminalize the denial of Armenian
genocide allegations, Iraq was raised to the first rank among Turkey's
foreign and security policy worries last week.
The reason was a court order against Tariq al-Hashemi, the deputy to
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani. Accused of subversive acts against
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, Hashemi immediately left
Baghdad to hide in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) controlled
northern sector of Iraq, bordering Iran and Turkey.
This development was alarming in Ankara, since al-Hashemi belongs to
the Sunni sect of Islam, whereas al-Maliki is Shiite and Talabani is
of Kurdish origin. Therefore in one single incident all main ethnical
and religious fault lines in Iraq were shaken and on the day after
the last American soldier left Iraq for Kuwait.
Ankara has been expecting something bad to happen after U.S. troops
evacuated following U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta's visits to Iraq earlier December. But as one
ranking Turkish official told me last week, "We thought the al-Maliki
government or Shiite powers in general would wait until the official
end of American presence by the end of the month." They did not expect
that al-Maliki was going to use the 'surprise factor.'
Al-Maliki immediately issued a statement calling Massoud Barzani, the
head of the KRG to send al-Hashemi to Baghdad for trials and should
not let him to go to another country. Since al-Hashemi would not go
to Iran or Syria under control of Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of
Iran, the only country al-Maliki meant was Turkey. Al-Hashemi made
an appearance the next day in Arbil, where Barzani's headquarters
are and then went to Sulaymaniyah, President Talabani's hometown.
In an interview in Sulaymaniyah with Aslı AydıntaÅ~_baÅ~_ of Turkey's
Milliyet newspaper yesterday, al-Hashemi linked the stability of Iraq
with stability of Turkey.
That is exactly the reason for Ankara's worries. Ankara believes that
Iran is behind what is happening in Iraq nowadays. "Tehran would
like to see an Iraq under Shiite control," one high ranking source
explained how Ankara considered the situation. "If they understand
that this would not be possible then they might want to secure at
least the Shiite populated south of the country."
That might lead up to division of the country and the Kurdish region
in the north will be left with one option only - even if they declare
an independent Kurdistan - in order to survive and that would be to
be attached to Turkey which would be an exit for their oil and gas
production and also protection. Speaking of security, both Turkish
and Iraqi Kurdish officials are aware that the issue of the armed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in the KRG region to carry out
attacks in Turkey will not be an item untouched.
A divided Iraq will have serious affects on Turkey's own Kurdish
problem and bring additional security burdens. But the troublesome PKK
presence in Iraq could also turn into a bargaining chip in Barzani's
hands in his encounters with Turkey.
On the other hand, the Shiite region has Basra as the biggest Iraqi
city on the shores of the Persian Gulf, where the oil and gas terminals
pump some 40 percent of exports to outer markets.
Iran has started a 10-day military exercise in the strait of
Hurmuz, the narrow outlet of the Gulf. And Iranian Chief of Staff
General Hassan Firouzabadi said yesterday Iran was "ready to expand
military links with Iraq," only to be welcomed by Saadoun Al-Dulaimi,
al-Maliki's acting Defense Minister. Iran also does not hide its
disturbance from Turkey's getting ready to activate the NATO Missile
Shield radar this week. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's timing in his visit to
Armenia three days ago was noted in Ankara.
Those are the reasons why Iraq is now a bigger headache for Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan than Syria and France.
From: Baghdasarian