Turkey, Iraqi Kurdish Tensions High
Louis Meixler, The Associated Press, ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Talk of a possible U.S. attack on Iraq is exacerbating tensions between Turkey and an Iraqi Kurdish faction - two crucial allies if the United States takes military action against Saddam Hussein's regime. Turkey is worried that the Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous zone in northern Iraq, would try to carve out their own state if Saddam is overthrown. Turkish officials fear that would encourage Kurdish separatist movements in Turkey.

The tensions could complicate Washington's efforts to build an anti-Saddam coalition because Turkey is home to a key air base that U.S. warplanes use to patrol a no-fly zone over northern Iraq. Washington is also apparently interested in using former Iraqi air bases in the Kurdish enclave.

Turkey fought Kurdish guerrillas for 15 years in the southeast of the nation, which borders northern Iraq, and says that a Kurdish state would serve as an inspiration for the rebels.

The Iraqi Kurds fear Turkish domination and have been angered by recent statements by some Turkish nationalist politicians suggesting that oil-rich areas of northern Iraq, including the Kurdish enclave, should be part of Turkey.

Northern Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries and some Turkish nationalists have questioned the treaty that put the area in Iraq and not Turkey after the collapse of the empire following World War I.

"It is an area which had been forcibly separated," Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmak-oglu said Tuesday. "Northern Iraq is under our safekeeping."

The statement sparked outrage from the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which controls about half of the autonomous enclave in northern Iraq.

The KDP warned that it will turn northern Iraq into a "graveyard" for the Turks if they enter. The KDP is believed to be able to mobilize some 40,000 fighters. Turkey also recently announced that it is choking off vital border trade that is a critical source of funding for the KDP.

Diesel imports from the Kurdish region ended in February and Turkish officials announced last week that the trade will not be restarted.

The Kurdish enclave depends on the smuggling of diesel to Turkey for a large part of its income. Sources say that the KDP has only been able to pay half the salaries of officials due to the cutoff in trade.

"Do they expect to implement their own filthy objective in the U.S. attack on Iraq?" Brayeti, the KDP's newspaper asked in an editorial. A translation of the Kurdish-language editorial was released on a Kurdish website close to the KDP and verified by a KDP official. "Let them try their luck in today's Kurdistan. They will ... witness that this nation will turn ... Kurdistan into a graveyard for those who attack it," the newspaper said. Turkish analysts seemed surprised by the harsh tone of the KDP's reaction.

KDP leader Massoud Barzani "should understand that he does not have the luxury to lose the support of Turkey," columnist Sami Kohen wrote in Thursday's Milliyet newspaper. "It would very useful for the U.S. to remind him of this again."

Turkish media have reported that Turkey recently refused to renew Barzani's diplomatic passport. A Turkish intelligence source confirmed that report. As Iraqi citizens living in territory that is not controlled by the Iraqi government, most Kurds travel on old or forged Iraqi passports.