Gulan: Tension becomes more hot on the boarder

I am now in London and I have not been using internet so I put Gulan's column of this week a little bit late here. It was published Monday the 23rd April.

http://www.gulan-media.com/h631/g27.pdf

The leaders of South Kurdistan surprised the whole world by building an ally with US. Ten years ago no one could believe that US would make cooperation with Kurds instead of Turkey.
However, in long perspective this is no good solution. What will happen when American army leaves Iraq?

Some people from South Kurdistan said to me that life there is now good but every one is afraid for the future. I understand this very well when I listen the aggressive talks of General Yasar Büyükanit and many Turkish politicians. They just wait that US army leaves Iraq so that they can occupy South Kurdistan.

It is easy to imagine how life of Kurds would be then. Just look at North Kurdistan! Kerkuk and other areas which are rich with oil would be turned into a Turkish colony same way as North Kurdistan.

Turkish army claims that it will go to Kandil to make the final solution of the Kurdish problem. Last decade Turkish army came and went across the boarder as it liked. Now this has changed.
Still Turkey seems to think that it would be easy to take even Kerkuk. They say that Masoud Barzani has very small army so he can not fight against Turkey.

They close their eyes from the problems of the American army in Iraq. Do people in Turkey really think that their army would be doing better than the Americans? American people demand that their soldiers must come home from Iraq. But Turkish mothers and fathers want to send their sons to die in Iraq.

Turkish people do not know what is the real situation in South Kurdistan. There is self-censorship in Turkish mass media. It does not give correct information but such propaganda as the army wants.

To make it clear: I am not telling anyone to start a war. Absolutely the opposite. These problems must be solved by negotiations and diplomacy. But from the militaristic point of view the situation is not at all so clear as the Turkish army claims.

If Turkish army attacks South Kurdistan it would lead to guerrilla warfare. Just imagine how attractive target oil pipeline from Kerkuk to Turkey would be for guerrillas. Turkey could not protect the pipeline even by sending thousands soldiers to patrol it. Turkish troops would fall into even bigger problems in Iraq than the American army.

There is one group who has the same problems and same enemy than the people of South Kurdistan. It is the people of North Kurdistan. Cooperation between them would benefit all Kurds.

There are many signs of this kind of development. KRG leader Masoud Barzani warned that if the Turkish army enters Kerkuk, "then we will take action for the 30 million Kurds in Turkey".

The atmosphere in North Kurdistan is now very tensed. Any incident can start a fire there. Turkish army's military operation to South Kurdistan could do it. Turkish Kurds have responded that Masoud Barzani's words are correct.

Such speeches are new from Kurdish leaders. During the Sévres times Kurdish leaders were not united. So they could not protect the rights of Kurds. When Kurds make cooperation with each others they are not any more weak. We live historical moments.