Turkey and Iraqi Kurds Turn Over New Leaf?

Kurdish leaders are making efforts to build stronger ties with Turkey, in order to boost trade, say analysts



However, some argue that Turkey is only interested in better relations to stem the threat posed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, which is based in northern Iraq, and warn that increased cooperation will not be popular among Iraqi Kurds.



Turkish and Kurdish officials held their first meeting earlier this month, hosted by Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, during which they discussed how to deal with the PKK, as well as Turkish investment in Kurdistan, according to sources close to Kurdish officials.



Also attending the meeting, which was held in Baghdad on May 1, were Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, prime minister Nechirvan Barzani, Ahmet Davudoglu, chief foreign policy adviser for Turkish prime minister Recep Tayip Erdogan, Turkish special envoy for Iraq Murat Ozcelik, and Turkey's ambassador to Baghdad Derya Kanbay.



Since 1984, the PKK and Turkey have engaged in bloody battles that have claimed thousands of lives in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq. Human rights groups accuse Ankara of oppressing Kurds and other minorities.



Iraqi Kurdish and Turkish leaders have sparred in the past over the PKK’s presence in the north of Iraq. Turkey has long demanded that Iraq expel the group, which is considered a terrorist organisation by both Ankara and Washington.



However, it has never dealt with Iraqi Kurdish leaders directly until this month’s meeting in Baghdad.



While Iraqi Kurds widely support the PKK, saying the group fights for Kurdish rights, Turkey’s business is integral to Iraqi Kurdistan’s development and will boost the regional economy, say analysts.



Trade between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey has reached eight billion US dollars since 2003, said Falah Mustafa, head of the KRG’s foreign relations department.



More than 300 Turkish companies are doing business in northern Iraq, and “have some of the biggest contracts in the region”, said Baqi Hassan, chairman of the Sulimaniyah Chamber of Commerce.



“Turkey connects Kurdistan to the outside world, especially Europe,” said Yousif Mohammed, a political science professor at the University of Sulaimaniyah.



Mohammed is optimistic that ties between the two will improve.



“If the meetings continue and the sides achieve their goals, it won’t be long before we see a Turkish consulate opening in Erbil,” he said.



According to Falah, Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish leaders will continue to meet but did not say when.



Kurdish officials believe the PKK issue should be solved peacefully and through political means, said Mustafa.



For some time, the KRG’s policy has been to limit support for the PKK, insisting that fighters not attack Turkey from northern Iraq. However, they say they cannot comply with Turkey’s demands to root out the group, arguing that its fighters are deployed deep in northern Iraq’s rugged Qandil mountain range.



“We won’t let Iraqi Kurdistan’s land be used for attacks against Turkey,” Mustafa told IWPR. “The PKK issue is an internal Turkish issue and has nothing to do with [Iraqi] Kurds.”



Gocalb Salshik, a Turkish engineer with Tapa Company, which is building the new 260 million US dollar University of Sulaimaniyah campus, welcomes greater cooperation, which he said would benefit business in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan.



“We tried to import materials into the region through the Turkish border and have been denied several times because of the tensions between Turkey and Kurdistan region,” said Salshik.



“It is very important for us that Turkey and Kurds have the best relations [possible] because we can invest more in the region.”



Fareed Assasard, head of Kurdistan Strategic Studies Centre, a think-tank linked to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, agreed.



He noted that while the KRG’s isolation of the PKK was not popular in Iraqi Kurdistan, the region needs to improve dealings with Turkey more than any other country in the region.



“The Kurdistan region needs Turkey in order to get a foothold in the Middle East,” said Assasard. “Until now, many Turks and other Middle Eastern [countries] consider Kurdistan an alien entity that might damage the region” by breaking from Iraq, he added.



But Ahmed Deniz, head of the PKK’s foreign relations, warned the KRG against becoming too friendly with Turkey.



“If we know that the KRG is taking a side in the [Turkish-PKK] issue, and that move is against the interests of the Kurdish people, then we will stand against it,” he said.



While University of Sulaimaniyah political science professor Salar Bassira argued that Turkey wants better relations with Iraqi Kurds so that it can go after the PKK.



“Turkey wants to eliminate the PKK, and they want to use the Kurdish parties as means to achieve that goal,” he said.



Turkey also fears Iraqi Kurdish control of the disputed province of Kirkuk, said Bassira, because it could lead to an independent Kurdish state. Its status was due to be decided by referendum at the end of 2007, but this was delayed for six months, partly due to concerns over security.



Meanwhile, news of a thaw in relations between Ankara and the KRG was not welcomed by many ordinary Kurds. They largely sympathise with the PKK and fear the group will suffer if Kurdish-Turkish relations improve.



“The Kurdish leadership needs to be really careful in dealing with Turkey. Since Turkey was created it has been against Kurds, so I suspect that they won’t be good to us,” said Ali Salih, a 36-year-old vendor in Sulaimaniyah, reflecting a widespread view.



Azeez Mahmood is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sulaimaniyah.