Should we start to take Barzani seriously?
Massoud Barzani eats at the White House with Bush and with the representatives at the European Parliament. He tours Europe and makes friends with the leaders. What happens when returns to his country? Turkey has ‘demoted’ him to tribal chieftain. He’s denied admittance. He’s nobody. This is the attitude that disturbs Barzani most. It irritates him and goads him into protecting the PKK.
Massoud Barzani eats at the White House with President Bush. Then he goes to the European Parliament and has lunch with the representatives. He even tours Europe and makes friends with leaders. What does he find when goes back home? Turkey calls him a tribal chieftain. He is refused admittance. He’s treated as a nobody. This is the attitude that upsets Massoud Barzani most and goads him into protecting the PKK.
In international relations, it’s your own country’s interests that are in the foreground, and not your emotions. Yesterday, we carried Barzani on our shoulders. Today, we can’t criticize him enough. Tomorrow, you may see him become “our best friend” again.
Maybe it’s already time to ask ourselves this question:
Wouldn’t it be better – tomorrow if not today – to start treating Mesut Barzani with some respect in order to pull him closer to our side, as the leader of a region that disturbs us most?
Isn’t it almost time to consider convincing people instead of beating them into cooperation?
It would be to our advantage to at least consider it…
He who laughs last…
I like this saying…It reminds me a little of our relations with the US.
In 2003, the US was planning a military operation into Iraq. It rang its good friend Turkey’s doorbell and said, “We’ve decided to intervene in Iraq. We need your help. Support us.”
Turkey had internal problems and said NO. Washington was very disappointed by the Turkish Parliament’s rejection of the March 1 motion.
Today, it’s Ankara that rings Washington’s doorbell and says, “We’ve made up our mind. We will attack the PKK camps in North Iraq. We need your help. Support us.”
Doesn’t this situation remind you a little of the saying, “He who laughs last laughs best?”
We must take a measure of ourselves before we judge others.
This sort of relation is always a matter of give and take.
What’s Turkey’s objective in northern Iraq?
It would be useful to repeat the answer.
We can list Turkey’s PKK-related expectations from Washington and the northern Iraqi administration as follows:
Basically, Turkey wants to activate Americans and the northern Iraq administration against the PKK in order to stop all terror activities or to reduce them to a minimum within that region. Turkey has asked the US and the northern Iraq administration to achieve the following to this end:
1. To capture terrorist leaders and to deliver them to Turkey.
2. To close all military camps positioned at various sections of the region, and especially on the Kandil mountain. ( this item especially includes cutting off free circulation, means of communication and financial sources.)
3. To establish one or several 20-km. wide buffer zones along the border between Turkey and North Iraq, and to develop a system to block all entrance into Turkey through this zone.
4. To evict the PKK from settlement areas and to prevent them from hiding among the people.
5. To update intelligence exchange.
The accomplishment of these objectives depends on the support that American forces and North Iraqi authorities lend us in the coming period. If American forces and Barzani do not participate at all, it will be very hard for Turkey to achieve complete results.
In that case, there will be three alternatives:
1. To bomb some camps and to repeat the bombardment from time to time.
2. To establish a narrow buffer zone or outposts at critical passage points.
3- To employ special forces to find and remove PKK leaders from northern Iraq when necessary.
All these options will be bargaining points between the Turkish Armed Forces and Pentagon.
The U.S. has grasped the fact that it is important for Turkey to take action, especially in order to satisfy the public opinion. It is also aware of Turkey’s determination. However, it wants this action to be confined to a limited time and area.
Turkey, however, wants to establish a long-term sanction mechanism northern North Iraq.
At this stage, the sides have yet to reach a clear agreement on specific points. However, general belief says that the U.S. will not object to air attacks and to limited land operations..
I don’t see why we are mad at the Greeks
The newspapers are in an uproar.
The Greeks have applied to the EU patent office and have registered Lokum (Turkish delight) in their name.
What’s wrong with that?
They have used an intelligent sales tactic and have received the patent of the Geroskipou Lokum.
“How could they do that?” scream the papers. Göksu, the president of the Association of Sesame, Crushed Sesame Seed and Halvah Industrialists (SUTHER) has said, “ …The whole world knows that lokum is Turkish. The Greek Cypriots are trying to claim it for their own through some sort of sweet produced by the Greeks from Istanbul…You can’t cover the sun with mud.”
It seems that the Greeks have also tried to steal our baklava , but had to give up when we defended it with our lives. It also seems that now our pastirma is in danger, too.
Dindar, a Koska (halvah producers) executive said in his statement that, “Even Madonna mentions the Turkish Lokum in her song.”
Friends, why don’t you stop talking and hurry to get your own patents first? If you do nothing but watch, others might pull your chairs from under you before you know what has happened.
What the Greeks did was intelligent.
Furthermore, let’s not try to hide our laziness and failure to look ahead by turning a commercial event into a matter of national pride.