‘Turkish imperialism’, EU and US

The American Occupying Authority is uneasy over Turkey’s dealing with Turkmen rights. It interprets our defending Turkmens as provocation or even a revolt against the American Occupying Authority. Some influential American columnists have already said that Turkey wanted to achieve its historical goals in northern Iraq by inflating the Turkmen population and even that Turkey has coveted the oil reserves in the region. According to them, Turkey is against Iraqi Kurds’ rights for these reasons and uses Turkmens to that effect. We see the traces of this American approach not only in Sulaymaniya but also in the earlier event of the "capture" of one of our military convoys while carrying guns to Turkmens.

In the same way, the European Union has noisily protested the possibility of the Turkish military’s entry alongside the invasion of Iraq and reiterated its "otherwise I will not make you a member" blackmail.

On June 25, the Council of Europe urged Turkey in a resolution it approved not to "colonize" the north of Cyprus and, in a report that constituted the basis for that resolution, Turkey was accused of continually (?) sending immigrants and changing the demographic structure of the north Cyprus.

Having said this, one can say that the United States and the EU infer the following outcome: Turkey, under the pretext of the rights of Turks living out of its borders, pursues imperialist goals in Cyprus and northern Iraq. In this, the Turkish Armed Forces plays a master role. We can make Turkey give up on that adventure by bringing the Turkish Armed Forces into line. Then, both the Cyprus problem can be resolved, Turkish soldiers can be withdrawn from northern Iraq and Kurdish rights can be improved.

It is not a coincidence that the Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, on a visit to Istanbul on Monday, also said that there could not be so many Turkish soldiers deployed in Cyprus, after pointing to the "big problem" that the role played by the Turkish army creates for the Turkish politics.

Though the issues of northern Iraq and Cyprus are quite different from each other, we may need to make some changes, especially in terms of rhetoric, to our policy in the light of this U.S. and EU attitude.

In the 1932 Declaration that made Iraq an independent country, Turkmens and Kurds were in the same legal status. In 1971, the Baath regime that granted the founding of nation status to Kurds, relegated Turkmens to status of minority. Turkmens were oppressed especially during the Saddam Hussein regime. Kurds, too, attacked and killed Turkmens at times. This was how the demographic structure in Kirkuk has changed against Turkmens.

It can be said that Turkmens would be safe under the new Iraqi regime, since necessary measures will be taken to prevent the central authority from oppressing any ethnic or religious groups. But the attitude of Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani towards Turkmens, a considerable part of whom live together with Kurds, is not promising so far.

If the United States happens to ignore Turkmen rights now to take revenge at Turkey’s not allowing in U.S. troops during the Iraq war, it would sow the seeds of a big problem that could branch out in the future. But granting Turkmen rights is easier than assumed. A census can be carried out on the basis of which the weight of ethnic and religious groups could be reflected on the new Iraqi regime. Since they are not concentrated in a certain area, Turkmens would not constitute a threat against the territorial integrity of Iraq as well. Together with the solution of the PKK problem, a promise for a census would be enough for Turkish soldiers to withdraw.

It is not the Turkish military’s concern with the maintenance of its presence in the island that prevents a solution in Cyprus. The Greek Cypriot administration’s beginning of accession talks with the European Union on behalf of the entire island has created, in a fashionable expression, a change of paradigm in Cyprus. In this way, a solution has come to be linked to Turkey’s EU membership, going beyond features of the Annan plan. Turkey, according to the "most favored nation" clause, cannot relinquish its right to become as close as Greece and Britain to Cyprus.

EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen, who disclosed the secret that there were hypocrites in the EU towards us, says in the same interview that he does not believe in our membership, and then he denies this.

In whom shall we trust and withdraw our soldiers by accepting the Annan plan?