Editorial: Bush Is to Blame |
25 March 2003
President George Bush's warning to Turkey not to send troops into northern Iraq provokes very mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is no justification whatsoever for Turkish troops going in. It is as much an act of self-serving interference in Iraq's affairs as anything the Americans are doing. Certainly, Ankara's claim that it wants to prevent a flood of refugees fools no one. The Kurds are not going to flee their safe haven in northern Iraq for the dubious protection of a state they fear and hate with as much intensity as Saddam Hussein's regime. They know they are safe where they are and will stay put, unless the US-led invasion of Iraq is seen to falter and fail, which despite the present Iraqi resistance is extremely unlikely.
On the other hand, that it is Bush warning the Turks to keep out of Iraq is repellent. Such a demand is rich beyond words coming from someone who, in sending his own his troops to topple Saddam Hussein, has trampled international law and order underfoot. But we cannot be surprised at such shameless hypocrisy. President Bush's manic belief that he is right and the rest of the world wrong vis-a-vis Saddam Hussein made it inevitable that he should assume that the US - and only the US - has an unchangeable right to do what it wants with Iraq.
Of course, we all know that the Turks have their own agenda, that the real reason why they want to intervene in northern Iraq is that they are afraid that the war could result in an independent Kurdish state there. The idea terrifies them. They fear that it could destabilize southeast Turkey with its own massive Kurdish community. That is why, over the past decade, Ankara has made no attempt to hide its animosity toward the autonomous Kurdish statelet around Irbil. It sees it as a dangerous threat, not merely because of what it could become, but because it has already institutionalized Kurdish freedoms. Having won them in northern Iraq, it fears the Kurds may want them elsewhere.
The Turkish government is out to make the most from this war. It first tried it financially with the Americans, asking billions of extra dollars for US troops to cross into northern Iraq, only to find that the Turkish Parliament had higher standards. Now it wants to intimidate and if necessary shackle the Kurds while the going is good. Moreover, it needs to be remembered that Turkish politicians regularly question the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne which defined the borders of present-day Turkey and they regularly reassert claims to the old governorate of Mosul. There is, moreover, all that oil to consider. In threatening to invade Northern Iraq, Turkey is simply pursuing its own interests.
But Ankara is being incredibly naive in doing so. It intervenes in Iraqi Kurdistan at its peril, not because of anything the Americans might do, but because of the explosion of Kurdish anger that will result, and which will blow back into Turkey, not just in the southeast, but possibly all the way to Istanbul, to which so many hundreds of thousands of Kurds have migrated. It is not Ankara's self-interest that shocks. It is Washington's arrogant assumption that it alone has the right to decide what happens in Iraq. Yet again Bush shows himself as the cowboy, in this case as the cowboy incensed that someone else has ridden into town on the lookout for the easy pickings that he has created. Ankara is simply taking its cue from Washington's actions. For that, Bush is wholly to blame.
President George Bush's warning to Turkey not to send troops into northern Iraq provokes very mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is no justification whatsoever for Turkish troops going in. It is as much an act of self-serving interference in Iraq's affairs as anything the Americans are doing. Certainly, Ankara's claim that it wants to prevent a flood of refugees fools no one. The Kurds are not going to flee their safe haven in northern Iraq for the dubious protection of a state they fear and hate with as much intensity as Saddam Hussein's regime. They know they are safe where they are and will stay put, unless the US-led invasion of Iraq is seen to falter and fail, which despite the present Iraqi resistance is extremely unlikely.
On the other hand, that it is Bush warning the Turks to keep out of Iraq is repellent. Such a demand is rich beyond words coming from someone who, in sending his own his troops to topple Saddam Hussein, has trampled international law and order underfoot. But we cannot be surprised at such shameless hypocrisy. President Bush's manic belief that he is right and the rest of the world wrong vis-a-vis Saddam Hussein made it inevitable that he should assume that the US - and only the US - has an unchangeable right to do what it wants with Iraq.
Of course, we all know that the Turks have their own agenda, that the real reason why they want to intervene in northern Iraq is that they are afraid that the war could result in an independent Kurdish state there. The idea terrifies them. They fear that it could destabilize southeast Turkey with its own massive Kurdish community. That is why, over the past decade, Ankara has made no attempt to hide its animosity toward the autonomous Kurdish statelet around Irbil. It sees it as a dangerous threat, not merely because of what it could become, but because it has already institutionalized Kurdish freedoms. Having won them in northern Iraq, it fears the Kurds may want them elsewhere.
The Turkish government is out to make the most from this war. It first tried it financially with the Americans, asking billions of extra dollars for US troops to cross into northern Iraq, only to find that the Turkish Parliament had higher standards. Now it wants to intimidate and if necessary shackle the Kurds while the going is good. Moreover, it needs to be remembered that Turkish politicians regularly question the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne which defined the borders of present-day Turkey and they regularly reassert claims to the old governorate of Mosul. There is, moreover, all that oil to consider. In threatening to invade Northern Iraq, Turkey is simply pursuing its own interests.
But Ankara is being incredibly naive in doing so. It intervenes in Iraqi Kurdistan at its peril, not because of anything the Americans might do, but because of the explosion of Kurdish anger that will result, and which will blow back into Turkey, not just in the southeast, but possibly all the way to Istanbul, to which so many hundreds of thousands of Kurds have migrated. It is not Ankara's self-interest that shocks. It is Washington's arrogant assumption that it alone has the right to decide what happens in Iraq. Yet again Bush shows himself as the cowboy, in this case as the cowboy incensed that someone else has ridden into town on the lookout for the easy pickings that he has created. Ankara is simply taking its cue from Washington's actions. For that, Bush is wholly to blame.