How is the Kurdish trump card being used against certain countries? What types of games is the USA playing through terrorism, while waging a ‘struggle against terrorism’ on a global scale at the same time? What is the USA hoping to achieve by using terrorism? How is it collaborating with terrorism? How is it establishing terror organizations and then setting them on countries it had declared as an enemy? We should draw lessons from these developments.

The administration in Washington wages a war against Iran by establishing a terror organization, training it, supplying it with arms, giving it a hit list. Those who argue that there isn’t and will not be a USA-Iran conflict should first look at Iraq, then to Lebanon and then to the ongoing conflicts within Iran in particular.

Waging warfare through terror is nothing new to the USA. During the initial phase of the invasion of Iraq, the MEK [Mujahideen al-Khalq, i.e. People's Mujahedin of Iran] was supported in its struggle against Iran. Initially added to the list of terrorist organisations, then removed from it before being permitted to open a base in Washington, the MEK signed a formal agreement with the USA. That Washington sat on the negotiation table with such an organisation, signed an agreement and provided protection for it against Iran for the future didn’t draw much attention. At that time I wrote that this will set a precedent and will be an ongoing process, that Turkey should take this seriously.

But more importantly, a new organization was established by the USA itself against Iran. The US army and intelligence trained this organisation, formed cadres, armed it, provided it with financial support and even with lists of specific locations and people it should target as well as the course of action it should follow.

Since that day, the PJAK [Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê, i.e. The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan], which is an offshoot of the PKK [Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, i.e. Kurdistan Workers Party], has carried out very significant attacks. Numerous Iranian soldiers have been killed. Conflicts are still ongoing. In this context, Iran is still engaging in a war with this organisation within its territory, while launching attacks on PKK positions in Northern Iraq. The administration in Tehran has openly held the USA responsible for this organisation and the attacks, but has been ignored.

The USA went even further by setting the Arabs in Iran into action. They started infiltrating deep into the Iranian territory, hitting specified targets and carrying out bombings. These attacks are continuing intermittently. Iran has resumed its operations recently. There are ongoing skirmishes on the Iranian-Turkish border. “Unless the Iraqi government expels the Iranian counter-revolutionary armed rebels who are linked to foreign powers, the Revolutionary Guards reserves its right to pursue and neutralise them beyond its borders, in order to defend its own security and that of the Iranian people” said Yahya Rahim Safavi, Commander general of the Revolutionary Guards, signalling an intervention on Iraq.

What should we make of the lack of progress between the USA and Turkey with regards to the PKK in this context? Shouldn’t Turkey worry that the USA is keeping the PKK as well as the PJAK as a trump card? Given that the PKK and PJAK are the same thing, that both organisations possess US-made weapons, that the USA is waging a war against Iran, together with an organisation that is Turkey’s target, that the USA is allying itself with an entity which Turkey considers as a primary threat; what should Turkey make out of all this?

The probability of a Turkish army operation against the PKK is gradually decreasing. No such possibility remains for Kirkuk either. The debate on a cross-border operation faded away in favour of a preference for opening the way for dialogue and negotiation. While Turkey is sitting at the negotiation table with the Kurds, Iran is being drawn into a conflict through PJAK, a conflict that runs parallel to its crisis with the USA.

What will happen to the cooperation between Turkey and Iran under these circumstances? There is no question that neither Turkey nor Iran is willing to engage in a conflict with the Kurds. But, the fact that the negotiation process in Turkey has been, by and large, led by the USA, means that there is less hope for a healthy solution. US policy of bringing Turkey to the negotiation table while engaging Iran in a conflict will lead to tension between Turkey and Iran. Combined with regional alliances and the targeting of Iran, we can predict how serious this tension might become. This development might totally destroy the ongoing cooperation between the two countries.

These issues have nothing to do with the Kurdish problem in the region. This is nothing more than the implementation, through the Kurds, of strategies set out by and large by Washington. It is not possible to brush aside the following warning by Hamid Reza Haji-Babaie, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis): “If this is being done to us today [i.e. depriving Iran of nuclear technology], it could be Turkey’s turn tomorrow.”

As long as the USA holds the Kurdish trump card, PKK trump card, PJAK trump card, terror trump card, all countries will be feeling this anxiety. If options of regional cooperation, negotiation with the Kurds without an intermediary and finding a regional solution to the problem cannot be developed, the USA and UK will destabilise all the countries including Turkey by using this trump card. It is not possible for Turkey and other countries in the region to find a solution without taking this trump card away from the USA and UK.

Will Turkey be able to embrace the dialogue process that will bring up the debates on federation? Increasingly stronger internal opposition to these debates might cause deep divisions within the domestic politics of Turkey. There will be pulsating developments as far as regional and domestic issues are concerned.





link to the original article published in the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak:


 http://www.yenisafak.com.tr/yazarlar/?t=02.03.2007&y=IbrahimKaragul