Partners in Turkey's crime

March 29, 1995
Issue 

Partners in Turkey's crime

The US and its NATO allies are displaying extraordinary hypocrisy in their support for Turkey's massive military incursion into southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). US officials have justified the Turkish operation as "self-defence", saying that neither the invasion nor Turkey's use of US-supplied arms in the operation is a violation of international law.

State Department spokesperson David Johnson said, "A country has the right to use force to protect itself from attacks from a neighbouring country — if that neighbouring state is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its territories for such attack".

Johnson also said Turkey is not barred from using US weapons in military actions considered defensive in nature. Turkey's armed forces are largely equipped with weapons either supplied by the United States or made in Turkey under US licence.

Some 35,000 soldiers, warplanes and armoured vehicles were attacking the area which the Turkish government has identified as Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases. A military spokesman said 76 bombs were dropped on a single camp alone. "It is the largest operation ever", eclipsing Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus, government spokesperson Yildirim Aktuna said.

The hands of European NATO members are as dirty as those of Washington. Last month Germany began transferring DM150 million in military supplies to Turkey. Earlier this month the European Union signed a customs union pact with Turkey, despite concerns of members of the European Parliament about Turkey's occupation of Cyprus and its war against the Kurdish people.

Officials of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimate that about 13,000 Turkish Kurds have fled to northern Iraq during the past year. More than one-third of them are living inside the strip of territory along the border that has now been sealed off by Turkish troops. The UNHCR has reported that Turkish troops are rounding up Kurds and moving them back across into Turkey.

Kurds in Turkey have been fighting a 10-year war for national self-determination against the Turkish regime, during which 2000 villages have been razed by the Turkish military and thousands of civilians killed. The West is supporting its Turkish ally in this war against the Kurdish people. The war has cost Turkey dearly, with no sign of success despite the commitment of 200,000 soldiers.

There are about 20 million Kurds spread over five states in the region — 10 million in Turkey, 5.5 million in Iran, 3.5 million in Iraq, with small enclaves in Syria and the former Soviet Union. They have a long history of oppression by regimes in all of those countries. Their cause is a just one, but that fact carries no weight at all with the directors of the New World Order.

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