USA Turkish Times - WT: Kurds' struggle blocks Turkey's entry into EU

WT: Kurds' struggle blocks Turkey's entry into EU

The Washington Times reported yesterday that the unfulfilled quest of the Kurds for statehood is now emerging as a major barrier in Turkey's path to the European Union and in Ankara's relations with the United States. Andrew Borowiec, reporting for the Times, it risks becoming the dominant issue of this year's Turkish parliamentary and presidential elections, and a considerable diplomatic irritant involving the United States, Europe and a large portion of the Middle East inhabited by Kurds. "Turkish officials feel that the United States does not want to antagonize Iraqi Kurds, perhaps the only genuinely pro-American faction on the tormented Iraqi battlefield. Turkish and Greek analysts, unusually in agreement on this issue, claim that Washington wants to establish a firm base in Iraq's Kurdish areas in order to control Middle Eastern oil routes."

Citing that in recent months, Turkey has made some concessions, including limited use of the Kurdish language on television, but the daily added the reforms are far from satisfying to the Kurds, and to the European Union, which constantly urges a change of policy toward a large minority considered to be downtrodden.

The daily claimed that last year Abdullah Ocalan, a jailed terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader, appealed from his cell through his lawyer for another truce.

"He was rebuffed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said that the solution of the Kurdish problem on Turkish terms is more important than Turkey's efforts to join the European Union."

The daily quoted leader of the Democratic Society Party Ahmet Turk's remarks, saying, "We don't want to join a state created by the Iraqi Kurds. Our home is in Turkey, we want to build a more free and open society here."

Citing that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is thought to be planning his candidacy in this year's presidential elections, the daily stated that "His opponents consider him abrasive, with little charisma and no knowledge of foreign languages. Secularists, army generals, members of academia and big business fear his Islamist credentials."

The daily added that a number of Turkish analysts feel that the approaching electoral contest will fuel nationalist feelings including the strategy of "hot pursuit" of Kurdish terrorists into Iraq.

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