Turkey and Iraq

To answer Kathy's questions.



First, our flight to Istanbul took about 4 1/2 hours. Istanbul is on the far west side of Turkey and we are on the far east side of the Saudi peninsula. Also, we're quite a bit south of Turkey at the south end of the Saudi peninsula. So, our flight path from here took us north up the Saudi peninsula and then west across Jordan, Lebanon, area and finally west across to Istanbul. For obvious reasons, we fly around Iraq so that also adds a little time to the flight.



While we were in Turkey, I picked up a book called "Turkey, Iraq, and the US". The intent of the book is to outline why Turkey took the positions that they did in the latest war in Iraq. If you remember, up to the last minute, Bush thought that the US would be able to station US troops in Turkey to invade Iraq from the north. But up until the last minute the Turkish parliament didn't ratify to approve, so US troops needed to fly in from Europe and from carriers stationed in the Persian Gulf. Anyway, this book has been very insightful for me - and the timing is perfect with the recent conflicts between Turkey and the PKK (Kurdish Rebels) in northern Iraq.



What I learned was that up until WWI, the northern part of Iraq (the Kurdish area) was actually a part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. After WWI, the Kurdish area was split and part of it was put into northern Iraq and part into eastern Turkey. There was a long time that Turkey tried to re-establish their borders to include the northern part of Iraq. What is interesting is that the two Kurdish areas formed into different groups and they really are not supporters of one another. And between Iraq and Turkey it actually became advantageous to keep the Kurds separated from one another (sort of a divide and conquer approach). The PKK is actully the TURKISH kurds, not the Iraqi. In the 60's and 70's they went across the border to hide in Iraq and they have launched attacks on Turkey from there and then retreated across the border. Up until the latest Iraq war, both Turkey and Iraq had an gentleman's agreement that they could both cross each others borders (up to about 30 km) to chase the rebels that were attacking them. Then, when the Iraq war started, the Kurds in Iraq objected to the Americans and to NATO about these incursions. Since the Iraqi Kurds are such strong allies of the US in this war, the US agreed to pressure Turkey to stop these invasions. Since then the PKK has been able to launch attacks into Turkey and then retreat into Iraq knowing that they will not be followed. So, these latest attacks by Turkey onto the PKK are actually a resurrection of actions that were ok up until 2003. If you read the papers, Turkey was working with the Iraqi Kurds and asking them to intervene with the PKK hiding out in northern Iraq. But this was ineffective and they finally decided to stop waiting and took matters into their own hands.



As for how the war is reported here. I have never seen any outright condemnation of the war or pieces saying "We told you so". Mind you, I can only tell you how the English papers & news stations report it. I don't know if you get a different perspective on Arabic news. For the most part there is very little in the way of opinion pieces in papers. If there are, the writer is often Westerner, so what you're getting in the opinion pages is largely the same as what you would get at home. But that isn't a reflection of Emirati opinion.



You really have to read between the lines and draw some conclusions to get an idea of what they are thinking because the news that they report is very superficial. First of all, it's pretty clear that the UAE views itself as a liaison between the West and the Middle East. More than any other country in this region, the UAE has a very positive relationship to the US and the West. Islamic fanaticism is not tolerated here and there are HUGE pressures (economic, political, military) to make the UAE a safe place. However, as arabs, the UAE leadership also has strong ties and relationships to many of the countries in this region.



So, you will read in the paper that Dick Cheney, Condolezza Rice, and most recently Laura Bush are here. After Dick Cheney's visit, the president of Iran (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) came one week later. And then right after that the US and Iran announce they have come to agreement on something. So, it can't be a mistake really that they were both here in the two weeks leading up to that.


All in all, I think opinion here is that the war has been an unfortunate mistake. There was no one in the region who wanted this war to happen, and now that it has, they are just working like crazy to make sure the whole region doesn't destabilize - and the UAE (along with most of the countries in this region) is trying to play an influential role in that work. However, although they have friendly relations with many countries like Syria and Iran that the US doesn't officially talk to, they still have limited influence many times. I think they are able to temper some of the emotions, but cannot fully influence other countries to go one way or another.



If you'd like to see how things are reported here, go to: http://www.gulfnews.com/home/