Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Özeti
☞ moderated its demands to political
autonomy and broader cultural rights in a
country where the Kurdish language was
long formally banned.
Many fighters are from southeastern
Turkey, the Kurdish heartland where many
say they faced discrimination and oppression.
Erdogan took a political risk in
easing restrictions on the Kurdish language
and culture, winning the opprobrium
of nationalists who fear a disintegration
of Turkey.
CAVES AND HUTS
Life is far from idyllic, fighters moving
regularly to evade air raids, sleeping in
caves, in stone huts, in the woods or under
canvas. Meals are largely beans, rice and
meat.
The PKK promotes women’s equality to
recruit in traditionally male-dominated
Kurdish society and female fighters in
combat fatigues are much in evidence in
the stronghold.
One woman guerrilla, who said she’d
joined PKK ranks at 13 and spent 15 years
in Qandil, knows freedoms and status she
enjoys here may sit ill with a traditional
Turkey’s thirst for
Kurdistan oil raises
tensions with
Baghdad to new peak
Erdogan announces discussion of terms of energy partnership
with Iraqi Kurds in first public confirmation of project
that could aggravate tensions in powder keg region.
Middle East Online
March 30, 2013
NKARA - Turkey is discussing the terms of an energy partner-
Aship with Iraqi Kurds, the country's prime minister said Friday
in the first public confirmation of a project that could aggravate
tensions in the powder keg region.
Analysts have said the move -- aimed at securing affordable oil and
gas supplies to fuel Turkey's rapid economic growth -- also risks
damaging ties with the United States, its major ally.
"We are in the process of striking a trade agreement with them (Iraqi
Kurds)," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview
with the CNN-Turk television.
Referring to a Baghdad-controlled oil pipeline to Turkey that operates
well below its capacity to transport 70.9 million tonnes a year, he
said the aim was to "make the existing pipeline more active."
He suggested that it might be extended with multiple oil and gas
pipelines.
The partnership threatens to worsen a long-running dispute between
Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq over
how to exploit the country's energy wealth.
It is also raising eyebrows in Washington, where there are concerns
that it could tip the volatile country towards disintegration and push
an increasingly isolated Baghdad into Iran's embrace.
Kurdish home where women are often
more confined to kitchen and children.
“In our society, women are not valued.
I feel my place and my value more here.”
Another female fighter also had reservations
about leaving the mountain after
so long, and returning home.
“We cannot really leave this life,” she
said, sitting with a rifle in her lap.“I say to
myself sometimes, if I return to live with
my family, and peace and freedom is
achieved, how will I leave behind the life I
have gotten used to?”
There perhaps lies one of the problems
— not unfamiliar to those seeking
to end an insurgency. The guerrilla existence,
the mountain, becomes a way of
life.
“Neither female nor male fighters
want to leave the free life they have in the
mountains,” Karayilan said. “But we have
to make them believe.”
The questions of disarmament and
reintegration of combatants have tested
peace efforts from Northern Ireland to
South Africa.
Foreign mediators could be brought in
to oversee disarmament and reintegra-
tion, as happened in Northern Ireland.
Certainly, there is a strong element of distrust
on both sides.
For PKK fighters like Botan, eight years
fighting in Qandil and Turkey have shaken
any belief Ankara would play its part.
“History shows me there is no room to
trust the Turkish state,” the former
construction worker said.
The drive for peace on both sides followed
from a summer when PKK attacks
reached new heights and the Turkish
authorities responded by arresting hundreds
of Kurdish activists and renewing
bombing raids on Qandil.
Truces have been declared and secret
talks held with the PKK in the past, but
there is a weariness on both sides with
generations of young men, mostly Kurds,
dying in the conflict. It is a conflict that has
battered the Turkish economy and pitched
the southeast into poverty.
“We are at a stage where the Kurdish
and Turkish public want peace,” Karayilan
said. “Erdogan has to take steps to solve
the Kurdish issue and put his name down
in history.” ●
Erdogan: No article in Iraq constitution
can prevent this trade
Erdogan dismissed the concerns and said the Kurdish regional government
had a right under the Iraqi constitution to use part of its energy
resources with whichever country it chooses.
"Why did northern Iraq feel the need to make such an agreement with
us? ... Because they cannot agree with (Iraqi Prime Minister) Maliki,"
he said.
"There is no article in the (Iraqi) constitution that can prevent (the
Kurdish regional government) from making this trade contract with
us."
Erdogan hailed Turkey's energy cooperation with Iraqi Kurds as "winwin"
for both sides.
Ankara has been at loggerheads with the Iraqi government over a
number of issues, including Turkey's refusal to extradite fugitive Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi and the burgeoning energy ties with Iraqi
Kurdistan.
The central Iraqi government has so far blocked Turkish efforts to
step up their presence in northern Iraq.
In November, Baghdad blocked Turkish national energy firm TPAO
from bidding for an oil exploration contract, a decision which
Erdogan had said was not "smart business".
And in December, Baghdad barred a plane carrying Turkish Energy
Minister Taner Yildiz from landing in Arbil as he was reportedly on his
way to seal the much-speculated energy deal.●
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