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
March / 23 / 2013
Leader of PKK in northern
Iraq declares cease-fire
ISTANBUL - The leader of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern
Iraq, Murat Karayılan, has declared a
cease-fire starting on March 23, in a video
broadcast during the Nevruz celebrations in
Bonn, Germany, according to broadcaster
CNN Türk.
“We declare a cease-fire starting on
March 23. If the [Turkish] Parliament and
government do the legal groundwork for a
MARCH 23, 2013
Iraq, 10 years later,
is less threatening but
riven by turmoil
By Editorial Board
THE ANNIVERSARY this week of the invasion of Iraq has generated
plenty of commentary about the lessons of that war. But relatively
little has been said about the current state of U.S. relations with a
country that remains one of the world’s largest oil producers and a strategic
crossroads of the Middle East. For the first time in decades,
contemporary Iraq poses no threat to its neighbors, and parts of the
country are flourishing. But violence continues, the central government
appears to be crumbling, and the United States, by failing to live up to
its promises of partnership, is tipping the country toward deeper trouble.
Iraq remains plagued by the sectarianism that now pervades the
Middle East. Following a democratic election in 2010, Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, formed a coalition government with parties
representing Kurds and secular Sunnis. But he has since driven the
Sunni vice president into exile, while the Sunni finance minister and
Kurdish foreign minister no longer visit Baghdad, much less carry out
their duties. Sunnis in western Iraq are growing increasingly restless,
while the remnants of al-Qaeda continue attacks against Shiite targets
in Baghdad. Tensions are also growing between Mr. Maliki and the
autonomous region of Kurdistan, with both sides deploying military
A parliamentary delegation
comprised by
independent Kurdish
deputies and members
of the Peace and
Demcoracy Party,
have conveyed
Abdullah Öcalan's letter
to PKK's headquarters
at the Kandil
Mountains in northern
Iraq, where they
met with Murat
Karayılan. DHA
photo
commission, we could withdraw [from
Turkey],” Karayılan is quoted as saying in
the video broadcast by the Germany-based
Kurdish TV channel Nuce TV and published
on a website known to have close ties
with the PKK. Karayılan also guaranteed
that unless PKK militants were attacked,
no assault would be launched, according to
daily Hürriyet’s report.
Karayılan had reportedly ordered his
militants to halt their actions on March 22.
However, he did not mention any "withdrawal"
in the message, which he gave via
walkie-talkie.
The jailed leader of the PKK in Turkey,
Abdullah Öcalan, declared a cease-fire in a
message conveyed during Nevruz festivities
in Diyarbakır on March 21, to hundreds
of thousands people. He also called on
armed militants to withdraw from Turkish
soil, indicating that these moves would
mark a milestone for “a new era” and
herald the building of a “new Turkey.”
‘ÖCALAN’S DECISION IS
OUR DECISION’
In the video Karayılan praises Öcalan’s
call as “historic” and describes it as paving
the way of a “new start.”
Echoing some of Öcalan’s statements,
Karayılan said, “Öcalan’s decision is the
decision of all of us. We accept and agree
with this decision. We consider its content
and scope historic, just and very important.
It’s the beginning of a new process and
era.”
He also stressed the importance of the
“togetherness of the peoples” and a process
of freedom by means of democratic
reforms. “We consider this perspective described
by Öcalan as the new step to achieve
freedom and democracy. Everyone should
see it that way,” he said. ■
forces near territories claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds.
Iran’s influence over Mr. Maliki’s government is mounting, thanks
in part to the Obama administration’s failure to agree with Baghdad on
a stay-on force of U.S. troops. According to U.S. officials, Iraq has
been allowing Iran to fly weapons through its airspace to the Syrian
regime of Bashar al-Assad. Repeated appeals from Washington to stop
the traffic have gone unheeded, even though the United States is selling
Iraq F-16s for its own air force.
The civil war in Syria, and the passivity with which the Obama
administration has responded to it, have reinforced these negative
trends. Mr. Maliki fears that the downfall of the Assad regime could
lead to a Sunni-dominated government that would back insurrection in
Sunni parts of Iraq. As with leaders across the Middle East, he perceives
that the United States is unwilling to defend its interests in the
region, either by stopping the Syrian bloodbath or countering Iran’s
interventions.
The risk of greater turmoil or even a return to civil war in Iraq is
one of several compelling reasons for more aggressive U.S. action to
end the war in Syria. But the Obama administration could also do much
more in Iraq itself. Visits by the new secretaries of state and defense
could help to steer both Mr. Maliki and his opponents toward more
constructive behavior, as could the conditioning of military sales. U.S.
support for Iraq’s secular politicians and civil society groups could
help ensure that elections scheduled for 2014 are free and fair.
President Obama has often given the impression that he has turned
his back on Iraq, and many Americans understandably sympathize with
him. But a failure to engage with the fragile state U.S. troops left
behind would endanger U.S. interests and break faith with the many
Americans who made sacrifices there. ❐
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