Kurds became top story in global media

Last decade Turkish troops went and came across the Iraqi boarder as they liked and Western media did not pay much attention on that. Last autumn, when Kurdistan Labour Party PKK did a very successful attack to Daglica near Hakkari, the situation in Kurdistan became the top story of the world media. How ever, it disappeared from the headlines also quickly.

Turkey’s attack to North Iraq was the most important story on Saturday the 23rd February in the front page of Finland’s biggest daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. And also other European mass media has paid lots of attention to the attack.

An interesting change to their previous reporting is that instead of writing ”PKK terrorists” media uses now often terms ”PKK fighters” or ”PKK guerrillas”. There is still no in-depth understanding about the Kurdish question but it seems that the Kurds are now finally taking the place in the international media what they deserved already long time ago.

British quality newspaper The Independent wrote about the attack with title ”The new invasion on Iraq”. It is good to keep in mind that Britons are the second largest group of the soldiers occupying Iraq and the very many British people demand the removal of their soldiers from Iraq. In London there will be the 15th March a big demonstration against the Iraqi war. Let’s see how much attention the second invasion on Iraq will get there.

Turkey’s hopes that the world would accept or at least ignore the attack to Kurdistan are in vain. European Union and many countries, for example Germany, demands the operation to be very limited both geographically and in duration.

According to Bloomberg also U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on Turkey to wrap up as quickly as possible its latest military incursion into northern Iraq to combat Kurdish fighters. Gates also said Turkey won't be able to solve the problem of cross-border Kurdish raids through purely military means.

Kurdistan Regional Government calls on Turkey to withdraw troops. The statement of KRG says that the people of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq must not yet again be made to suffer as a result of what is in reality an internal Turkish political issue.

I think the decisions of KRG are now most important for the development of the situation. The key person is president Masoud Barzani. He has possibility to act in a way which increases the understanding and co-operation between the Kurds or either deepens the disagreements.

Traditionally, Kurds from Iraq and Turkey have not had much contacts and communication with each others, but this attack affects both of them. Thanks to the new information technology they can follow the situation almost in real time. Satellite televisions and the internet are also forums to discuss the consequences. The coming days and weeks will show how much this war will unite Kurdish Diaspora communities from various parts of Kurdistan.

Now everyone outside Turkey is talking about dialogue and political solution. Kristina Nagy, European Commission spokeswoman, said reporters in Brussels on Friday: "We encourage Turkey to continue to fulfil dialogue with international partners on this matter."

Let’s hope Turkey and Turkish people understand this because a peaceful solution to the crisis would benefit also them.