By Yakov Ben Efrat
Abdallah Ocalan, the revered leader of the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK), was abducted from Nairobi on February 15 by the Turkish Special Forces. The event spurred worldwide protests. Ocalan represents 20 million Kurds in their fight for independence. Twelve million of them live in Turkey and the rest are spread through Iran, Syria, Iraq and the former Soviet Union.
Like almost every global issue, the arrest of Ocalan has an Israeli angle. In spite of vigorous denials from Jerusalem, the Kurds insist: it was not only the United States and Turkey who cooperated in tracking down their leader — the Mossad had a part as well. They accuse Israel of telling the Central Intelligence Agency where Ocalan was. The Turks, so far, have not denied Israeli involvement.
The New York Times has confirmed that for the past four months the CIA helped Turkey in its efforts to get Ocalan. As for the Mossad, suspicions are based on the military and political ties between Israel and Turkey, which have developed under the auspices of the US. These ties have tightened since the signing of the Oslo accords.
According to Ephraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ian University, the two countries maintain joint listening posts in Turkey on the borders of Syria, Iraq and Iran. Their defence ministers have recently held several meetings, in the course of which Israel won lucrative contracts to upgrade Turkish Phantom fighters.
The ground for the Israel-Turkey alliance may be found by looking in two directions, toward Syria and toward Egypt.
The two US allies have Syria as a common enemy. Against Turkey, Syria supports the PKK; it gave Ocalan refuge for 15 years. Members of his military wing have trained in Lebanon's Beqa Valley, which is under Syrian control.
Against Israel, Syria opposes Oslo. It fights Israeli troops through its proxy, the Hezbollah guerrillas. It insists on the return of the Golan Heights.
As for Egypt, the Israel-Turkey alliance may be attributed in part to Cairo's retreat from its role as the chief US Arab ally. After supporting the US's 1991 crusade against Iraq, Egypt felt it had not been sufficiently rewarded. What is more, the Egyptians have steadily opposed Israel's regional monopoly on nuclear weapons, its refusal to sign the non-proliferation pact and the US's continuing indulgence.
Given Egypt's retreat, the US pushed for the Israel-Turkey axis. It frets over signs of Arab solidarity with Iraq. Arab governments are under constant pressure from their peoples, who sympathise with the Iraqis and abhor the one-sided US support for Israel. The waning of Arab support calls into question the US's ability to keep order in the region.
It was Syria that took the lead in opposing the Israel-Turkey alliance. It opened a vociferous campaign to protest their joint naval exercises, which also included the US and Jordan. What especially troubled the Syrians was the sight of Israel's air force training in Turkish skies. This meant that the Israelis might henceforth enjoy a new advantage, threatening Damascus from the rear.
Syria's opposition to Turkey's new bedfellow encouraged Ankara to produce a card of its own: what about Syria's support for the PKK? It warned that it would go to war if Syria continued to shelter Ocalan. Haffez Assad capitulated and Ocalan had to begin his trek from country to country, until his enemy caught him.
The Kurdish story also has an Iraqi angle. On the very day that Ocalan was abducted in Nairobi, the Iraqi special envoy Tariq Aziz was visiting Ankara. The visit of a high Iraqi official to Turkey is odd given Baghdad's recent threats against Turkey for permitting US bombers to take off from its land.
It seems, however, that Iraqi shares common ground with Turkey. Both have a political-ideological conflict with Iran and Syria.
The Turks compete with Iran for influence in the former Islamic republics of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Iraq has a long, bloody history with Iran. The latter supports the Shi'a population in southern Iraq, which recently rose in violent protest after the assassination of one of its leaders. Moreover, both Iraq and Turkey combat the Kurds. It was this, above all, that brought Aziz to Ankara.
Since the Gulf War of 1991, the US has not let Iraq intervene in its northern territory, which is home to the Kurds. The area has become a military base for all three Kurdish factions, including the PKK. According to Alhayat (February 16), Aziz offered Turkey a deal: stop letting the US launch air strikes from your land and recognise Iraqi sovereignty over the Kurdish territory in northern Iraq and in return the Iraqis will wipe out the PKK bases. The Iraqi official laced his proposal with tempting economic offers, including cooperation in the oil market.
The Aziz meeting indicates Ankara's softening position toward Iraq. The intended audience is the US who the Turks want to know the high economic and military price they are paying for their cooperation. This would explain the US's involvement, which has not been denied, in the capture of Ocalan; Washington wanted to appease Ankara. The US pressured every state that gave Ocalan refuge to chase him out.
Another chapter of this unending story was Assad's surprising trip to Jordan for the funeral of King Hussein. Syria has condemned Jordan relentlessly for its strategic relations with Israel, as well as for joining the Turkish alliance. Without doubt, Assad's expulsion of Ocalan paved the way for his participation in the funeral and his meeting with Clinton. Anticipating the resumption of peace talks after Israel's elections, Syria is hinting at its readiness to join the US peace process.
The Arab regimes are unhappy with Oslo, but they continue to seek their places in the "New American Order". The endless manoeuvring, in which everyone switches sides, permits the US to keep its grip on the area, while Israel goes on making the rules. In the midst of it all, the people of the Middle East remain marginalised by underdevelopment and poverty. Among them are the Palestinians and the Kurds, two peoples still deprived of their right to independence.
[Abridged from Challenge, March-April 1999.]