Reuters: Turkish PM warns Iraqi Kurds over Kirkuk

[Eugene]

Turkish PM warns Iraqi Kurds over Kirkuk
Tue Jan 9, 2007 8:19am ET

ANKARA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday Turkey could
not stand idly by if Iraqi Kurds seized control of oil-rich Kirkuk in northern Iraq,
though he did not spell out what Ankara might do to prevent such a scenario.

-snip-

Ankara has accused the Kurds of deliberately boosting their numbers in Kirkuk,
at the expense of Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmens, to ensure the city votes
in an eventual referendum in favor of being incorporated into Iraq's Kurdish region.

-snip-

He did not say how Turkey might act. Analysts rule out any military intervention
by Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, but say Ankara is likely to increase
it diplomatic and commercial pressure on the Kurds. Turkish territory provides crucial
land routes for Iraqi oil exports to the West.

Turkey wants any future referendum on Kirkuk's status to lead to power-sharing
between its ethnic groups and to confirm the city's place within a politically united
Iraq.

-snip-

Full article: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-01-09T131845Z_01_L09818009_RTRUKOC_0_US-TURKEY-IRAQ-KURDS.xml

[xchrom]

1. turkey doesn't want to be cut out

of the oil profits.

and nobody has a history of kicking kurds longer than the turks -- it's a national pass time.

[genie_weenie]

2. Turkey doesn't want the Kurds

to think about creating Kurdistan, with Kirkuk as the captial.

[xchrom]

4. oil is where the kurds would get money to do such a thing.

and oil is something that the turks -- because of the turkmen -- see them selves as having a right to.

oil =money = turkey's national interest.

if it was barren -- no mineral wealth -- no natural resources of great interest -- turkey could be persuaded to give up stomping kurds.

[TexasLawyer]

9. exactly

Oil-rich Kirkuk as capitol of autonomous Kurd nation could well lead to WWIII.

The risk of this scenario playing out is one of the very major reasons why the US should never have gone into Iraq in the first place.

Risk of Kurdish autonomy (and risk of resulting challenge to the nation of Turkey, and/or Turkish civil war) was a primary reason why Turkey would not cooperate with the US when US first invaded Iraq (despite major monetary bribes proposed by US to Turkey pre-invasion).

[Tempest]

3. B.S.

It would help if the Kurds stopped their terrorist attacks against Turkey, which have been going on for years and for which Turkey has been very measured in its response to them.

If Turkey were run by someone like Bush, the Kurds would no longer exist.

[xchrom]

5. measured in it's response?

:rofl:

[Tempest]

6. Considering you thought Turkey was worried about oil revenues

You're not considered to be very knowledgeable on the subject.

[xchrom]

7. one punchline after another -- you gonna be here all week?

[Tempest]

8. One thing is for sure

You have no intelligent rejoinder to my point.

I'd be interested in hearing you explain exactly why Turkey is worried about oil in Kurdish regions of Iraq when oil is traded on the open market and in complete disregard to national borders.


Let's see if you have anything other than snarky remarks to contribute.

[xchrom]

12. there is no point in trying to intelligently inform

someone who believes that the kurdish people haven't suffered horribly from turkish rule -- it borders on the bizarre.

kind of like Holocaust denying or the armenian genocide wasn't.

i don't what you're ''informed'' with -- but it isn't historical accuracy.

and as far as the oil goes -- that's like believing the u.s. isn't in iraq because of oil.

[genie_weenie]

10. Do you really think Turkey has been

"measured in its response"?

I mean until Turkey became worried with getting into the EU, Kurdish music and language (names and writing), dress, associations, and newspapers, TV and Radio were all banned by the Turkish government.

How many Kurds have been killed with the weaponry the US has provided Turkey?

Here's a nice article from 1999.
http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=ma99mckiernan

[customerserviceguy]

11. Sounds to me

like the Turks would do well to start making peace with an autonomous Kurdistan, that may likely have its own nationhood someday soon. After the Shiites and the Sunnis kill each other off, they may have Baghdad as it's capital.