Can America’s promise to “liberate” the Iraqi people square up with it’s promises to Turkey? At the moment it seems they are prepared to ignore the wishes of the Iraqi Kuds in favour of Turkey…?
US assures Turkey it will replace Kurdish forces in oil-rich Kirkuk
Turkey said it had won a pledge from the United States to send reinforcements to Kirkuk to replace Kurdish fighters who captured the strategic oil-rich city in northern Iraq. The assurance came after Ankara threatened to send troops to the region if Kurds were allowed to take control of Kirkuk and northern Iraq’s other major city Mosul, a move that could encourage them to declare independence. US Secretary of State Colin Powell gave the pledge after US and Kurdish forces entered Kirkuk earlier Thursday following a popular uprising in the city, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said. “He said they would send new US forces to Kirkuk in a few hours. They will take out those who have entered,” Gul told reporters after speaking by telephone with Powell. “Powell said they would not allow a de-facto fait accompli.” Ankara offered military help in case there were not enough US soldiers in the area, but the offer was rejected by Washington, Gul said. The United States has repeatedly told Turkey to stay out of the area, fearing a clash between the powerful Turkish military and Kurdish forces.
But Gul said Turkey – a key NATO member and US ally – has agreed with the United States to put military observers in northern Iraq to ensure Kurdish forces leave. “We will have military observers there… They (the United States) made the offer and we accepted it,” Gul said. Ankara fears that control of local oil resources could embolden Iraqi Kurds to move towards independence, a prospect that could set an example to their restive Kurdish cousins in Turkey. Iraqi Kurds lay claim to both towns saying they were in the majority there before the cities were taken over by Arabs under the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But Gul insisted that Turkey will not allow Kurdish refugees to change the demographic make-up of Mosul and Kirkuk, where residents Thursday pulled down a large statue of Saddam and burned a giant portrait of the Iraqi president. “We will not permit either armed people or those without arms, who could try to destroy the demography and the structure of these towns,” he said. Both Kurds and Turkmens – an Iraqi ethnic Turkish minority backed by Ankara – claim Kirkuk and Mosul as their own. Thousands of Kurds and Turkmens were forced out of Kirkuk Saddam’s regime under his policy of “Arabization” or ethnic cleansing. The displaced people were replaced by Arabs who were given incentives to settle in the area. Now with the end of the Saddam regime, Kurds and Turkmens are both awaiting their chance to reclaim former homes in the oil-rich region.