Sinn Fein (Ireland) on Turkish invasion

[EUGENE at zodiac.rutgers.edu]

Subject: Sinn Fein (Ireland) on Turkish invasion

from An Phoblacht/Repubican News
news and views of the Irish Republican Movement
published in Belfast and Dublin, Ireland
March 28, 1995




                          No 'comfort' now for Kurds 
                                  World View 
                              BY DARA MAC NEILL 

ANYBODY REMEMBER the Gulf War? Apparently it had a lot to do with toppling
tyrants and protecting the human rights of subject peoples. One of the key
events in that whole campaign was the establishment by the US-led forces, 
in April 1991, of Operation Provide Comfort. 

Operation Provide Comfort apparently had one basic premise: to protect the
long-suffering Kurdish population in northern Iraq from the excesses of 
Saddam Hussein's military. As a result, a huge swathe of northern Iraq 
became a no-go area for any Iraqi military personnel and, in order to 
ensure compliance, the region was policed by the US military. 

There are some 25 million Kurdish people scattered between Iraq, Syria, 
Iran and Turkey. During the carve-up of the Middle East after the First 
World War, nobody paid any heed to Kurdish demands to be treated as a 
separate national entity.  

The same carve-up resulted in the creation of Kuwait, simply to maintain a
western foothold in the region and ensure its bounteous oil supplies would 
not fall into 'the wrong hands.' 
 
Since then, the Kurds have lived largely as refugees and they are, 
effectively,  he largest displaced nation on earth. Demands for the
establishment of a separate Kurdish state have met with equal ferocity and
brutality from the rulers of the countries in which they reside. Indeed, the
Turkish government even refuses to recognise the Kurdish people within their
own borders as a separate ethnic identity. Finding all other avenues closed 
the Kurds have resorted to armed struggle which today is led largely by the
PKK. 

Since the establishment of Operation Provide Comfort some 44 months go, the
only people who appear to be in any way comforted are the Turkish military.
Using the absence of any Iraqi military presence in northern Iraq, they have
struck at both rebel bases and civilian centres in the region. In the process,
an estimated 15,000 Kurds have been killed. 

In this the Turks have been aided and abetted by the US, who regard Turkey 
as a key ally in the region. Thus, although George Bush was willing to play
politics with the lives of the Kurds in 1991 and make noises about 
protecting them from Saddam Hussein, he repeatedly refused to meet 
Kurdish representatives for fear of upsetting Turkey. 
 
On 20 March, Turkey took their brutal campaign against the Kurds a step 
further when they launched a wholesale invasion of northern Iraq. The
operation, involving up to 35,000 troops, is the biggest ever in Turkey's
history, outstripping even their 1974 invasion of Cyprus. 

So where are the self-styled protectors of the Kurds? Standing on the 
sidelines  making comforting noises. Bill Clinton has endorsed the
operation and expressed ''understanding'' of Turkey's need to ''deal
decisively'' with the Kurds. Apparently, Clinton was initially hesitant 
about the whole affair, but was reassured when the Turkish government 
informed him they expected the operation would be a short one. I'm sure 
the Iraqi Kurds will be immensely comforted by that news. 

As a result, according to one US news report, the US-led airforce which is
charged with protecting the Kurds has ''halted its routine flights in the
area, which are designed to protect Iraqi Kurds.'' 

The news report which carried the story appeared to find nothing even 
remotely strange, unusual, or even slightly contradictory abut this. But 
then they wouldn't, would they. 

Once again, the Kurdish people have become the victims of ''strategic
necessity''.