Turkey's vested geopolitical interests

By Tulin Daloglu
March 7, 2006

Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari paid a one-day visit to Turkey, prompting an angry Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to call the trip "illegal." The Iraqi President said he was troubled that the Prime Minister did not tell other officials who are still negotiating over the new government about it. Yet, when Jalal Talabani, "the" Kurd of Iraq, is disgusted with Mr. Jaafari's visit to Ankara, one could not stop but thinking whether his reaction to the Iraqi prime minister were only a disguise to cover up his irritation of the Turks. continue

Iraq on the Brink

Editorial

Published: March 1, 2006
Iraq has moved perilously close to civil war. Everyone who knows anything about the tortured history of that country, cobbled together from disparate parts by British colonial officials less than a century ago, has always dreaded such an outcome.
Fear of civil war stayed the hand of the first President George Bush, when he turned back American troops and left Saddam Hussein in power. It generated much of the opposition to the current President Bush's invasion in 2003. Yet many critics of the invasion, including this page, believed that the dangers from civil war were so dire that American troops, once in, were obliged to remain as long as there was a conceivable route to a just peace.
The only alternative to civil war is, and has always been, a national unity government of Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Unless these mutually suspicious groups can work together, the United States will be faced with the impossible task of trying to create a stable democracy that Iraqis have refused to create for themselves.
The chances of putting together such a government grew much smaller with the bombing of a major Shiite shrine in the largely Sunni city of Samarra last week, an attack that literally blew the lid off the simmering animosity between Iraq's two main religious factions. That hatred and distrust had been heated to a high boil by the sharp-shouldered and small-minded maneuvering over the formation of a new government.
To millions of enraged Shiites, all Sunni Arabs suddenly seemed indistinguishable from the Samarra bombers. Seeing that the weak-willed and poorly disciplined Iraqi security forces had utterly failed to protect their revered mosque and shrine, Shiites looked instead to the vicious and brutal sectarian militias run by leading Shiite political parties. They promptly unleashed a torrent of bombings and killings directed against Sunni mosques, mullahs and terrified civilians.
Those bloody reprisals have so far killed hundreds of people. They confirmed Sunni fears that the Shiite-led government would not lift a finger to protect their lives, families, property and mosques from a reign of terror inflicted by militias affiliated with the leading government parties.
The desperately dangerous situation that now prevails in Iraq could never have been created by Sunni terrorists alone, or by the dithering ambivalence of Sunni political leaders, who seem unable to decide from one day to the next whether they are ready to engage in the give-and-take of parliamentary politics. Much of the blame must also go to ambitious and revenge-minded Shiite political leaders, who, for the past year, have thwarted constitutional compromises and given members of their party militias key posts in the government security forces and Interior Ministry prisons. To this day, they continue to resist the formation of a broadly inclusive national unity government.
Some of the worst offenders on this score include the incumbent prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who has just been nominated for another term; his crucial ally Moktada al-Sadr, the rabidly anti-American cleric, politician and militia leader; and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who heads Iraq's most powerful Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
If Iraq can still be saved from its consuming hatreds, at least some of these major Shiite leaders will have to rise to the moment and abruptly change their ways. Kurdish leaders can help by pledging to withhold their support for Mr. Jaafari's renomination unless he agrees to a broadly representative national government. And Sunni leaders will have to embrace and take part in such a government, accepting the fact that they are a minority in the population and must get used to playing a secondary, though still significant, role.
If civil war broke out, innocent Shiite and Sunni civilians would suffer first, but the repercussions could spread far beyond Iraq's borders. The Shiite south would be further propelled into the political orbit of Iran, and Kurds in the north would claim independence, probably drawing in Turkey. The oil-free western and central Sunni area would be left impoverished, a potential no man's land that could become a home base for terrorists operating around the globe.
Iraq's elected leaders can still save their country. They must now prove that they want to. Time is rapidly running out.

Talabani: Autonomy for Turkmens in Kurdistan!!

Turhan Tisinli,

21.02.2006

Turkmens cannot be quieted by vague promises, and definitely cannot willingly be a part of a country that calls itself by an ethnic name like that of "Kurdistan"; and be partners with a people who have been planning to change their ethnic identity, as recent history tells us about Erbil.People who would like to be partners with Turkmens must first of all stop all the rhetoric about Kurdishness of Turkmen Land in general, Kerkuk in particular. Kerkuk being "Jerusalem of Kurds" (as if Turkmens are the occupying Jews), and similar absurd and unfounded claims by Kurdish parties must stop immediately, all the "peshmerge" forces must be withdrawn from Turkmen Land (Turkmen Eli).Turkmens must be recognized as an equal partner whether in Iraq or whatever unit the Turkmens are going to end up in. My heart is still bleeding for what happened in Telafer to hundreds of innocent people.Ironically, we Turkmens instead of being unified against the unrelenting, and ever increasing threats to our very existence, we are still squabbling about who should have been the "emperor" of the Muslim Nation some 1400 years ago. Unaware of the (successful) attempts to wipe us out of existence, we are still flogging ourselves for our masters' losing the chance to come to power then, all the while we are subjected to life-and-death issues facing us in the presence, this minute to be precise).All the non-Turkmens who were resettled in the Turkmen cities and towns were resettled there for one and only one reason: robbing the Turkmens of their claim to their cities and towns and natural resources, alienate them, and eventually dissolve their presence.Since the construction of Iraq (some 80 years ago), Racist regimes of Baghdad as well as racist Kurdish parties raced with each other to Arabize, Kurdify, or simply "de-Turkmenize" Turkmen cities and towns. Even the defunct IPC resettled the Assyrians and the Armenians near the oil fields and installations and employed them with generous salaries all the while the rightful inhabitants of Kerkuk suffered from poverty and neglect.As the site of one of the few giant oil producing fields of the world, Kerkuk is still a slum-looking town, which lacks the infrastructure it deserves for being the sole life line of Iraq for many decades. Even a simple university was seen too much for Kerkuk. Talking to a Turkmen friend about the issue in the 1970's he said it is good that they didn't, because it would be a good pretext to bring more Arabs to the city, as was the case with Sulaymaniyya University, that was used to introduce Arabs to that Kurdish city.Kerkuk was home for one of the biggest military bases in the country (the Second Brigade, that helped the Kurds in the famous 1959 massacre of Turkmens in Kerkuk) that brought thousands of Arabs and Kurds to the city who eventually chose it as their permanent address.Kerkuk in particular, and Turkmen Eli in general, unwillingly and due to political naivety of Turkmens (who were not allowed to have leaders from themselves), absorbed thousands upon thousands of non-Turkmens that were brought there by British oil industry (Iraqi Petroleum Company), army bases, and other governmental establishments, not because the city lacked local workers, but due to conscious and covert plans to dilute the Turkmen concentration and gradually get rid of them.I appeal to humanity to stop rewarding the Kurds (who undoubtedly suffered a lot in the hands of past Iraqi regimes) at the expense of Turkmens, who suffered many extermination attempts by the same regimes, and ironically at the hands of Kurdish "peshmerge" themselves too.

Bumpy road ahead to Iraq's first full government

16 Feb 2006 13:37:36 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Lin Noueihed
BAGHDAD, Feb 16 (Reuters) - It could be weeks or even months before Iraqis get their first full-term government since the ousting of Saddam Hussein, with political factions wrangling over top ministries and conflicting visions of Iraq's future.
"I think this process will take until at least the middle of next month," said Abbas al-Bayati, a Turkmen Shi'ite Muslim who belongs to the dominant United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).
"There are two main problems: getting all the parties to agree on a government programme, which may take time, and the distribution of portfolios, especially key ministries such as interior, defence and foreign affairs."

Shias pick kingpin

Turkoman parliamentarian Fawzi Akram told Al-Ahram Weekly that, "because of the rivalry between Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Al-Jaafari, the United Iraqi Alliance decided to put the matter to a vote. In the vote, which took place at the headquarters of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Al-Jaafari got 64 votes and Abdul- Mahdi 63 votes... Al-Jaafari has the support of the Al-Sadr group, a block that has 30 parliamentary seats."

AL-AHRAM weekly

Iraqi Kurds Take Tough Stance on Kirkuk

Wednesday February 15, 2006 1:01 AM
By PAUL GARWOOD
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Kurdish political chiefs led by President Jalal Talabani warned Shiite leaders Tuesday that a deal on the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk would be their key demand in talks on forming the country's next government.
Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni Arab leaders met in the most intensive discussions over the next government since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari narrowly won a ballot last week to be the dominant Shiite alliance's candidate to retain the premiership.
Talabani also met with al-Jaafari's coalition ally, top Shiite political leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, whose candidate to be the next premier, Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, lost by one vote to al-Jaafari.
Talabani said his Kurdish coalition's key demand in the government talks concerned Kirkuk, particularly implementation of the constitution's Article 136, which calls for a census to be held there followed by a referendum on whether it should be part of the Kurdish self-ruled Kurdistan region.
``The Kurdish Coalition has no demands except those which are known by everyone regarding the need to implement Article 136 of the constitution ... considering Kirkuk,'' a statement released by Talabani's office said.
Prominent Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman said the constitution's Kirkuk clause is ``nonnegotiable.''
However, Arabs and Turkomen oppose the Kurds taking sole control of Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's vast northern oil fields. Control of Kirkuk is among the most intractable issues facing Iraq because of the conflicting ethnic claims.
Al-Jaafari, meanwhile, vowed Tuesday to work in ``accordance with the constitution'' and maintain his ``good, long and deep relations with the Kurds,'' particularly Talabani. The two have often been at odds over various issues.
Kurds complain that al-Jaafari's outgoing government failed to honor promises about the status of Kirkuk. Saddam Hussein deported tens of thousands of Kurds from the Kirkuk area and replaced them by Iraqi Arabs.
Talabani also said he wants the next government to include the Iraqi National List of former premier Ayad Allawi, who has close ties with the United States and has been touted as a possible interior minister.
Sunni Arabs oppose hard-line Shiites like current minister Bayan Jabr claiming the Interior Ministry amid accusations Shiite-led security forces have been killing and kidnapping Sunnis in a wave of sectarian violence.
But some Shiite leaders, including allies of radical cleric and al-Jaafari ally Muqtada al-Sadr, also oppose Allawi taking a senior government post, seeing it as a ``red line'' issue. Al-Sadr supporters reject Allawi because he directed Iraqi security forces in campaigns against al-Sadr militiamen in Najaf and eastern Baghdad in 2004 and early 2005.
But in his talks with Talabani, al-Hakim said there were no ``red lines'' on any bloc taking part in the government, a reference to Allawi's group.
The U.S. wants Iraq's various political groups to form a national unity government that gives key positions to Sunni Arabs, who form the backbone of the raging insurgency. Sunni satisfaction with the political process is seen as a way to end the violence.
Much of the battle over the new government will come down to numbers. Talabani's coalition has tapped him to take the presidency again, but he needs two-thirds of the 275-seat parliament to support his nomination.
Al-Jaafari's alliance holds 130 seats, not enough to form a government on its own. The Kurds, Allawi's list and a Sunni Arab bloc hold a total of 133 seats. Any government will be approved only after intense bartering.
Under the constitution, the new president calls on the largest bloc's candidate for prime minister - that being al-Jaafari - to form a Cabinet, which requires a simple majority of the assembly to be approved.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday welcomed the final results of the Iraqi election and called on political leaders to form ``a fully inclusive government'' that will strive to build a democratic and united country.
The council condemned acts of terrorism in Iraq and urged those who continue to use violence ``to lay down their arms.'' It said terrorist acts ``should not be allowed to disrupt Iraq's political and economic progress.''

Iraq: More trouble brews as new government takes shape

DOHA, Qatar (IPS/GIN) - Six weeks after parliamentary elections, occupied Iraq is still struggling to establish a viable government amid increasing violence and instability.
The results of the Dec. 15 elections have still to be finalized, but it is clear that the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), a Shia fundamentalist coalition, won at least 128 seats in the 275-seat national assembly. Since 138 seats are required for a simple majority, the powerful group will still have to cut deals with Kurdish or Sunni alliances to form a government.
The Kurdish Alliance won 53 seats. The Turkmen—who claim to represent at least 11 percent of the population of the oil-rich but volatile northern city Kirkuk—are angry that they failed to obtain even one seat in the new parliament. The Turkmen, like the Sunnis around Baghdad, allege widespread election fraud. The Sunni coalition, which boycotted the Jan. 30 election last year and continues to contest the latest election results, won 58 seats.
Former interim prime minister and alleged CIA asset Iyad Allawi managed only 25 seats through his al-Iraqiyah slate, a huge setback to the occupying powers’ plans for a secular Iraq. This means that the government will be dominated by a pro-Tehran Shia alliance, and that Iranian influence will continue to grow in Iraq. On a recent visit to Iran, Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr declared that his Mehdi Army and millions of followers would fight for Iran if it were to be attacked by a foreign power.
In a strange twist of fate, this means that U.S. policymakers are leaning now toward the more secular Sunni groups, some of which claim that Saddam Hussein was a secular Sunni.
U.S. officials, including Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, have been accused by Shia groups of “reaching out” to Sunni Arabs in an effort to counter the growing resistance in Iraq, and in efforts to promote a unified government. Shia leaders see this as an attempt to undermine their power.
“The Americans are so focused on Sunni interests that their motivation goes beyond just promoting national unity,” a UIA spokesman said.
Federalism, which in effect would mean decentralization, with more powers to a Shia south and a Kurd north, has emerged as a major sticking point in any consensus. Sunni and Shia leaders have clearly conflicting views on this. Sunni political groups fear that federalism will lead the Kurds and Shias to split Iraq into three parts. The Kurdish north and the predominantly Shia south are the main oil-producing regions of the country.
Sunni Arab leaders oppose either regional confederacies or federalism. They are attempting to form political blocs with secular Shia and Kurdish groups to counter plans for such federalism.
Disputes continue also over control of ministries. Sunnis continue to oppose Shia control of the Ministry of Interior. Sunni leaders say Shia militias are regularly being used as death squads in Sunni areas of Baghdad and Fallujah. Shia leaders have said they will not surrender any ministry that controls Iraq’s security forces. Shias also control the defense ministry.
“This will be one of the hottest issues,” Sunni leader Hussein al-Falluji said. “We will press this in the negotiations, and if the Shias are not flexible on this, it will be a problem.”

Kurdish Name for Historically Turkmen City Altınkopru

Kurdish Name for Goldenbridge (Altinkopru)
The name of the Kirkuk town, Altinkopru, was changed on new guideboards by the Kurdish Administration in North Iraq.
Historically known as a Turkmen town, the town was given the Kurdish name “Pirde” that means “bridge” in English. The officials declined to comment on this change of name that occurred almost two days ago. The Turkmen here said hundreds of people died for Altinkopru during the Saddam Hussein regime. They also argued that the Kurdish political parties are looking for ways of including Altinkopru in the map of Kurdistan.

Exiled Turkmen lay claim to oil riches

Jonny Dymond in Istanbul
Sunday February 2, 2003
The Observer

In a badly lit room in a nondescript apartment in central Istanbul about 150 men and women come this time every year to mourn their dead. Beneath what looks something similar to a Turkish flag, a man sings from the Koran to a sombre audience, some weeping, others lost in their memories.
These are the Turks of northern Iraq, known as Turkmen. Many have fled from persecution by Saddam Hussein and every year they gather for mevlit, the mourning ceremony for those who died in either the Iran-Iraq war or in the struggle against Saddam.
Next to the flag is a map of northern Iraq; different colours indicate different ethnic groups. A small strip of light blue at the northernmost edge of Iraq indicates Kurdish predominance. Down south is uncoloured, of no interest to the Turkmen. A broad strip is coloured yellow to indicate Turkmen predominance. Firmly within the yellow area lie Mosul and Kirkuk, one of the richest oil-producing areas in Iraq.
Every room in the apartment has this map on the wall; in his office at the back of the suite the leader of the Iraqi Turks' Association, Kemal Beyatli, has two copies framed and hanging on the walls. Any expression of interest prompts the donation of another copy.
Turkey has always spoken up for the Turkmen community in Iraq, a group most number at about 500,000 in northern Iraq but which Turkey says is three million strong. But in recent months Turkish pulses have been racing at the prospect of a change in control of the areas that the Turkmen say they dominate.
Rumblings about a Turkish claim on northern Iraq started during and after the Gulf war in 1991. Since then Turkey has backtracked, sticking to the line of maintaining Iraq's territorial integrity. But recently Turkish politicians have once again raised the issue of sovereignty.
Alarm bells began to ring loud among Turkey's neighbours when Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis announced last month that Turkey was inspecting old treaties to 'find out whether or not we have lost our rights to this region'.
Mosul and Kirkuk lie just outside the semi-autonomous region of Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. Turkey claimed Mosul and Kirkuk for itself when it declared its borders after the collapse of the Ottoman empire in 1920. Even then the area's oil wealth was evident. But Turkey never secured the territory. It recognised Iraqi control of the area in a treaty signed with Britain in 1926.
In his office decorated with paintings, engravings and, of course, maps of Kirkuk, Kemal Beyatli is careful not to step beyond the official line of Turkish policy. He is not, despite the suffering of the Turkmen people at the hands of Saddam, in favour of war.
But about Kirkuk's origins, he is adamant: 'The traditions of the people, the architecture, the cemeteries and the folklore prove to which nation it belongs,' he says. 'One can see very clearly that Kirkuk is a Turkmen region.'
All of which may come as something of a surprise to the Kurds, seen as the dominant ethnic group in the area. But it is the Kurdish presence in the region, rather than old treaties or ethnic links, that drives Turkey's claims.
It is hard to find people in Turkey who really believe that it has sovereignty over Mosul and Kirkuk. Arguments remain over whether Turkey received what it should have from oil revenues, says Hikmet Ulugbay, a former government Minister who ordered research on the issue when he was in office. But he said, 'the 1926 agreement firmly established the borderline. There's no question about it'.
Turkey's most recent claims to Kirkuk and Mosul are more about sending a warning to the Kurds and their likely allies, the US. Turkey will not allow Mosul and Kirkuk to fall into Kurdish hands. It has fought a long and bloody war against Kurdish paramilitaries in south-east Turkey. It believes that any hint of an autonomous Kurdish state would inflame a separatist problem which it has only recently contained.
'The real problem for Ankara,' said Kurdish journalist Ragip Duran, 'is the thought of an autonomous Kurdish state with access to the oil wealth of Kirkuk and Mosul, which would give it economic independence.'
If there is any hint of the oil wealth of the region falling into Kurdish hands, Turkey will not hesitate to move its army - the largest in Europe - into northern Iraq. Turkey announced this week that it was reinforcing its 2nd Army, based near the Iraqi border.
The United States insists that if it fights Iraq it will not be fighting for oil; it has said that the oil of Iraq belongs to the people of Iraq. That may satisfy the great powers. But if Iraq's central authority is destroyed those 'people' may once again become 'peoples', fighting between themselves for the oil wealth that could set them free. Warily, Turkey watches and waits.

Shias Head for Uncertain Govt

...The Kurdish Alliance obtained 53 seats. The Turkmen who claim to represent at least 11 percent of the population of the oil-rich but volatile northern city Kirkuk are angry that they failed to obtain even one seat in the new parliament. The Turkmen, like the Sunnis around Baghdad, allege widespread election fraud. .....continue

Iraqi Women Seek Survival not Science

By Semsinur Ozdemir,
Istanbul Published: Monday, January 30, 2006 zaman.com

The speech made by Dr. Enise Avci, an Iraqi Turkmen, at the "Women in the Alliance of Civilizations" International Women's Congress held by the Prime Ministry of the Women's Status General Directorship at Istanbul’s Conrad Hotel Sunday, and confronted conference participants with the realities taking place in Iraq today.
Dr. Avci’s speech entitled, "Woman's place in science- the Iraq example" in the panel themed "Women in Science and Technology" and expressed the situation in her country as "What is sought in Bagdat (Baghdad) today is survival not science."
She said Iraq, before the US occupation, was in a good condition regarding women's scientific works when compared to other Arab and Far Eastern countries, but today Baghdad, for centuries one of the world's largest science centers, has turned into the capital of a ghost country.
Avci expressed scientific works continued in her country despite the pressures of the overthrown regime and the rate of participation by women in this field was relatively high. ....continiue

Colonel: Key northern town on right track

By PAMELA HESSUPI Pentagon Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The United States and Iraqi forces have won the upper hand in a key region of northern Iraq, but the American commander warned Friday that victory may be fragile.
"This is a victory for the Iraqi people, it's a victory for the Iraqi security forces, but certainly it's a fragile victory. I mean, this is a brutal and determined enemy who wants to get back into the city, who wants to continue to brutalize these people," said Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the 3d Armored Calvary Regiment, at a Pentagon teleconference Friday.
"We anticipate that this enemy will continue to try to come back. There will continue to be violence in the city. But we're very confident now that our combined forces -- the police, the army, our forces -- can preempt those attacks," he said.
The 3d ACR launched a months-long campaign last year to oust insurgents, foreign fighters and terrorists from the town and surrounding regions and re-establish civilian control.
"This was an important physical defeat for the enemy because they lost this safe haven and support base in an area that they hoped to use to destabilize the northern region of Iraq. It was also a very important psychological defeat to the enemy because people now understand that these anti-Iraqi forces want Iraq to fail. They now know, because we've been able to demonstrate our intentions with our deeds, that we, the Iraqi army, the Iraqi police, the leaders who have emerged from Tall Afar want Iraq and want
Tall Afar and western Nineveh to succeed," said McMaster.
The 3d ACR arrived in Tall Afar last summer to find the city largely in the grips of local insurgents and terrorist forces moving across the nearby Syrian border. Tall' Afar was a way station, the first stop on the way to key northern city of Mosul 30 miles to the east, and to Baghdad in the south.
"What we saw initially is the enemy was very organized before or specialized within cells, kidnapping and murder cells, mortar cells, sniper cells, and so forth. What we saw initially is a lot of these had consolidated, so you'd find in one house, you know, the propaganda material, the IED-making material, the sniper weapon, and then, obviously, we pursued this enemy.
"I mean, the enemy now, they're skulking around like rats, you know, at night, through the wadi systems and so forth in the city. They can't be seen, because it is them who are afraid," McMaster said.
In November of 2004 the entire western Ninevah province had been the target of a major insurgent offensive during which more than 40 police stations were destroyed by bombs and mortars, and most of the police force run off.
Tall 'Afar has its own set of problems. It's 250,000 residents are a complex tapestry of ethnicities and religions and tribes -- 82 of them. About 95 percent of the town is ethnically Turkmen, with about 5 percent Kurdish. 75 percent of the Turkmen are Sunni and 25 percent are Shia. The Kurds are almost entirely Sunni. While Kurds and Turkmen historically have warred, when sides are chosen in Tall 'Afar, the Turkmen Shi'ites often ally themselves with the Kurdish Sunnis against the Turkmen Sunnis.
On May 1, 2005, a suicide car bomber struck at a funeral in Tall 'Afar killing more than 20 Iraqis and inaugurated a virulent new phase in the insurgency -- between five and 10 attacks a day in the city, and in one month as many as 170. The 3d ACR believes the attack was an attempt by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi's organization to flame ethnic tensions.
"It seemed to be going well for the enemy as the regiment began to arrive in the area of operations in the summer of 2005. The enemy had taken over the schools, taken over the mosques. At least five civilians were being killed per day, at least that was the average," McMaster said.
The insurgent forces "hoped to incite sectarian violence which they did by collapsing the police force, turning the police force in effect into a sectarian militia that further fed the cycle of sectarian violence," McMaster said Friday.
While a Turkman Sunni mayor had governed the town, the police had been entirely Shi'a since 2004 when the Shi'a chief fired all 400 Sunnis.
When the 3d ACR arrived in Tall 'Afar in May, it discovered and freed two dozen abused and malnourished Sunnis being held prisoner by the police in town hall. The 3d ACR replaced the Shi'ite police chief with a Sunni general from Baghdad, and some 120 Tall 'Afar police have been referred to the Interior Ministry for investigation.
"I'm happy to report to you the situation in Tall Afar and in western Nineveh has fundamentally changed. And what we have been able to achieve there together alongside our Iraqi brothers is to bring life back to this area, to rekindle hope," McMaster said.
Attacks are down to 30 to 40 a month, McMaster said, and most contact with the enemy is initiated by American and Iraqi government forces.
The tipping point, according to McMaster, was the campaign to oust insurgents from their stronghold in a particular neighborhood in Tall 'Afar called Sarai. The campaign was marked by a 5,000-man joint U.S-Iraqi incursion to clear Sarai in September, but that was book-ended by a vast series of smaller raids in surrounding areas. By the time the 3d ACR got to Sarai, it was empty. That was the intention. The upcoming operation had been publicized in the hope that non-combatants and insurgents would flee, allowing the neighborhood buildings to be thoroughly checked and cleared of all weapons. It worked: During the three-day operation no casualties were reported and U.S and Iraqi patrol bases were established in the once impenetrable neighborhood.
With the town cleared of its violent element, the civilians returned to normal life. According to McMaster, it is going extremely well. Ninety percent of eligible voters took part in the December election, the entire town now has water and power, a function of improved security.
The key change is on the police force.
"Before the operation we tried very hard to rebalance the police force but,despite our efforts, only three Turkmen Sunna were able to volunteer because their families were in threat of being murdered if any of their sons or brothers or husbands joined the police force," McMaster said.
"Now we are building to a police force from what was 150 and all Shi'a, to a force of 1,765, who are just about fielded now, have been equipped and are undergoing additional training and integration with the Iraqi army's and our security efforts within the city."
The new force is roughly reflective of the population; about 70 percent of the new recruits are Turkmen Sunni, McMaster said.
"The most tangible thing we can see is that people are happy. Hope
is rekindled. Children rush to our soldiers. People spontaneously express
their gratitude to us and the Iraqi army. There are bonds of trust, mutual
respect, common purpose forming between the Iraqi army and the people, and
we're working on now reintroducing the police force and rebuilding its
credibility after the difficult period that the city is emerging from," McMaster said.
He also said some newborn babies have been named after 3d ACR soldiers, a sign of the esteem growing between the people of Tall 'Afar and the regiment.
McMaster credited the enemy he faces in Iraq with some of his victory.
"I mean, we ought to give the enemy credit for helping isolate themselves from this population. And their utter, utter brutality and inhumanity revealed what their true intentions were and allowed us to get after the enemy very effectively while protecting the population," he said.
As an example, 3dACR officials told UPI in September 2005 that one Tall 'Afar man was killed while retrieving the dead body of his 12-year old child, who had been shot to death by insurgents. The boy's body had been cut open, stuffed with an explosive device and dumped in the street. When the father picked him up, they both exploded.
"We'll stay after the enemy to maintain the momentum we have, maintain the initiative and, you know, make good on our effort here in the long term, so these people, who deserve security so much, have that security, enduring security, in the city and throughout western Nineveh province," he said.
The vast majority of the troopers in the 3rd Cavalry are in Iraq for their second tour of duty. They are expected to be redeploying to the United States this spring after a year in Ninevah.
McMaster said the unit replacing them has roughly the same numbers and capabilities -- attack helicopters, heavy armor, and artillery as well as infantry -- and knows it is in for a continued fight.
"There's not going to be any kind of degree of drop-off in effort," McMaster said.
McMaster as a major in 1997 wrote the influential book, "Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam."

Report: Iraq minorities face greatest threat

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sun, 01/22/2006 - 15:56.
A press release from Minority Rights Group International:
World War 4 Report - Brooklyn,NY,USA...
since throughout December's elections, Iraqi Sunni, Shi'a, Kurds, Turkmen, Christians and ... ethnic minorities that do not have a strong political voice in Iraq. ...

Iraq Is in a Race Against Time as Congress Grows Restless

BAGHDAD, Iraq
WHEN Iraq's leaders gather this week to begin the elaborate horse-trading required to fashion a coalition government, one non-Iraqi will be very much at the table: Zalmay Khalilzad, the unabashedly hands-on American ambassador.
The advice of Zal, as he's known around Baghdad, will not be subtle. The United States did not expend such volumes of blood and treasure to go coy at this critical juncture. "A Kurdish-Shia government will not solve the problem," Mr. Khalilzad said. "Iraq needs a government of national unity." ...continue

Iraq sliding

Every time an election or a referendum takes place in Iraq, it almost invariably creates hope that the regime will gain legitimacy and that terrorism and the Sunni resistance will lose momentum. That hope, however, quickly fades. This time, too, in the wake of the election there has been a sudden, big increase in attacks directed at US troops, Shiites and state institutions.


Gündüz Aktan

Every time an election or a referendum takes place in Iraq, it almost invariably creates hope that the regime will gain legitimacy and that terrorism and the Sunni resistance will lose momentum. That hope, however, quickly fades. This time, too, in the wake of the election there has been a sudden, big increase in attacks directed at U.S. troops, Shiites and state institutions.
America is to withdraw some 20,000 troops from Iraq out of a force that currently totals 160,000, including reinforcements sent in for the elections. This development is not unexpected. However, according to a previous congressional decision, plans for the withdrawal of the remaining forces must be announced during the initial six months. Any such announcement at this juncture would lead to Iraq's unraveling.
America is planning to expand the 200,000-strong Iraqi army and police force to around 300,000 by the end of 2006 and gradually hand the task of ensuring law and order over to them; however, the Iraqi army is not equipped with heavy weapons and the military training program has not been completed. The main problem is that the army does not harbor any overriding concern to preserve Iraq's unity. The Kurds maintain the peshmerga as a force that is much more heavily armed. The Sunnis are not admitted into the army since they are Baathists. As a result, the army is Shiite dominated. This hardly qualifies as an “Iraqi” army.
One U.S. official predicts that if things continue the way they are, the Iraqi army will split into ethnic and sectarian groups, degenerating into a number of armed bands and into militia forces of various segments. In that case, the Shiite-Sunni clash that has been under way could grow into a full-fledged war.
Furthermore, election results show that people all voted for their respective ethnic and religious groups rather than acting as “Iraqis.” Naturally, one cannot expect the army to be any different from the political structure prevailing in the country. In other words, the army could hardly be expected to transcend the “narrow” considerations of the political parties.
America has been in contact with members of the Sunni resistance. Its aim is to drive a wedge between the Sunni resistance and the al-Qaeda-led Zarqawi faction. Indeed, the Sunnis are complaining about al-Qaeda's indiscriminate violence. Sunni resistance fighters aim to drive the U.S. forces out of Iraq and regain their former sovereignty to the extent that it would be possible. Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, has aims that are a lot more extreme. The belated American attempts to win over the Sunnis have not, until now, yielded any results other than bringing about a stronger-than-expected Sunni turnout in the elections. The American press now is adopting a stance that is more critical of the Shiites and Kurds, whose petty moves to shut the Sunnis out of a coalition government are nudging the country closer to disaster.
The Sunnis have another problem. The Sunnis, who governed Iraq for 60 years, used to be known as the country's second largest group, albeit by a narrow margin. Yet, the American press now relegates them to Iraq's third biggest group status. Yet the Sunnis believe themselves to be, in reality, the majority. The truth is that at this moment no one knows the true size of this group. By the way, we do not know the exact size of the Turkmen population in Iraq, either. A census had been contemplated for the autumn of 2004 to determine the size of each group. That would have been important for the soundness of the elections. The plan was later dropped on grounds that this could lead to Iraq's disintegration. However, in any case Iraq is now disintegrating and the lack of information about the true size of each group in Iraq is contributing to this process.
The gravity of the crisis in Kirkuk is increasing. Since the Kurds have helped America, the latter tolerated for quite a long time Kurdish efforts to change the demographic structure of the Tamim province. Under Saddam's rule an Arabification drive had been launched there. To counter the effects of that drive, Article 58 of the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period envisaged a particular procedure to be followed to ensure that the displaced Kurds would be returned to the province. The procedure was never quite upheld. However, the new Constitution states that a referendum is to be held in 2007 to determine whether the province should be attached to the Kurdish region or to Baghdad. By now the Kurds have forcefully driven out the Arabs and piled a Kurdish population of some 350,000 into Kirkuk. This unlawful fait accompli is the biggest factor that could lead to a declaration of independence on the part of the Kurds and cause Iraq's disintegration.
If, in the face of such a possibility, the Shiites and Sunnis joined hands to protect Iraq's territorial integrity, then that could change the course of the civil war. The fact that terrorist attacks have recently spilled into Kirkuk indicates that this is not a possibility to be taken lightly.

The extent of Kurdification of Kerkuk region

SOITM (Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation),

Nijmegen, 11.01.2006 --

Kerkuk is a region of 2.2% of the planet petroleum deposit,(1) which amounts over 10 billion barrels of the oil reserves.(2-4) According to McDowell the oil revenue at the beginning of 1974 was expected to be ten times higher than in 1972 and Kerkuk accounted for 70 per cent of the state’s total oil output.(5) The oil of Kerkuk is well known for its good quality and shallowness of the wells, the petrol layers lay 840-1260 meter under the surface of the earth.(6) The underground of the city contains a substantial amount of natural gas and sulphur(7,8) which is exploited since the seventies of the latter century. According to Hanna Batatu the population of Kerkuk City was almost all Turkmen until not too past, the Kurds moved into the city with growth of the oil industry, their migration intensified.(9) Edmonds considered the great majority of the Kerkuk city as Turkmen in 1940s.(10) D. McDowall points out that although the Kurds were settled increasingly in the city during the 1930s and 1940s, the Turkmen outnumbered in the province as a whole and predominated in Kerkuk town in 1950s.(11) The arrival of the Kurds into the eastern Iraq had been described by both Phebe Marr and O’balance. Marr mentions: “In recent history, Kurds have been migrating from the mountains into foothills and plains, many settling in and around Mosul in the north and in the cities and towns along the Diyalah River in the south, but most Kurds still live along the lower mountain slopes where they practice agriculture and raise livestock.”(12) O’balance says: “Right up until the end of the 19th century the sight of a large tribal federation, with all its livestock, moving across the mountains and plains of the northern parts of the Middle East in search of fresh grazing, was both splendid and ominous - as nomadic Kurds moved like a plague of locusts, feeding and feuding.”(13) The steps of the Kurdification of the administration system in Turkmen region by the USA authorities in Iraq had been treated in details in the reports of SOITM and in the documents which were presented to the United Nations session on Minorities and Indigenous peoples. Thereafter, the gash of the Kurds continued into the region. The staffs of the governmental offices have been doubled; almost all the new appointees are Kurds. Tens of thousands of the Kurdish families have built houses on the municipality lands and legalized by the Kurdified Kerkuk administration. By the flagrant interference with the voter registration, USA aims to legalize the Kurdification of Kerkuk region. Kerkuk department of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) had registered about 460.000 voters, who hold the official documents of the province, in Kerkuk during the institution of the voter lists at the end of 2004. Before about 10 days of election, the commission was ordered to add about 108.000 Kurds who hold no legal documents proving that they are from Kerkuk province. The total number of the Kerkuk voters became 576.048. By this way, the Kurds win the majority in the Kerkuk council. It should also be noted that the election processes had been achieved under hegemony of the USA military authorities and Kurdified administration of Kerkuk. The realization of the Kurdification processes continued with much strength during the renewing of the voter lists for the election of 15.12.2005. The newly added voters in Kerkuk province reached 227,253, which make 40% of the total number of the Kerkuk voters. The mean of the number of the added voters in the remaining provinces of Iraq was 8.2. The great majority of the newly added voters took place in the election centers of the Kurdish region and with a Kurdish director of registration center.(13) In the early December, the IECI confirmed that about 86.000 voters were cancelled from the voter lists of Kerkuk. On 11.12.2005 and before 4 days of election, the IECI had gone back on his words and authorized the Kurds, who had committed the false registrations, to recheck the documents of these voters during the voting processes in the day of election.(14) Therefore, all these people had voted during the election of 15.12.2006. As a result the number of the voters in Kerkuk province accounted to 803.301. According to the statistics of UNICEF, the percentage of the Iraqis above 18 year was 52%.(15) Consequently, the present population number of Kerkuk province should be 1.544.809. According to the statistics of the ministry of trade of Iraq, number of the Ration Cards, by which every Iraqi receives the monthly portion of foodstuffs, in Kerkuk province was accounted to be 870.000 at the day of occupation. Noting worth, that this number is much possible to be high than the real number to be low. As a result, the increase in the number of the Kerkuk population during the Kurdification period, which started directly after occupation and continues until now, is about by 674.809. The numbers of both the Kurds and the Turkmen, who had been exiled from Kerkuk province during the Arabification policies of Ba’ath regime, were: 100.000 according to the United States special committee for refuges. 120.000 according to the Human Rights Watch and the Kurdish parties.(16) No doubt that the oil patrons in Bush family and in the USA administration can secure the huge oil reserves of the Kerkuk region better by the Kurdish authorities than the Turkmen or Arabs. Note: Reviewed for English language by M. Kelenchy Reference:

1. Ziyad Köprülü, “Turkish Presence in Iraq”, By Ornek Limited Company, Ankara 1996, P. 22.
2. Dale Allen Pfeiffer, “US INTENTIONS”,
   I
3. nternational Finance Center,
4. Iraq Petroleum Company,
   
5. David McDowall, “A Modern History of the Kurds”, I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd Publishers 1996, London & New York, P. 335.
   
6. “The Great Oosthoek Encyclopedia and Dictionary” 1978, Dutch version, volume 11, P. 264 - 265.
   
7. “Encyclopedia Britannica” 1992, volume 6, P. 377.
   
8. “Great Soviet Encyclopedia” 1976, English version, volume 12, P. 510.
   
9. Hanna Batatu, “The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq”, Princeton University Press, New Jersey 1978, P. 914.
   
10. Cecil John Edmonds, “Kurds, Turks and Arabs”: Politics, Travel and research in North-Eastern Iraq”, 1919-1925, Oxford University Press 1957, P. 265.
    
11. D. McDowall “A Modern History of the Kurds”, I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd Publishers 1996, London & New York, P. 329.
    
12. Phebe Marr, “The Modern History of Iraq”, P. 9.
    
13. Press Release of the IECI about the voter lists in Kerkuk,
    
14. Press Release of the IECI about the annulment of the voters from the Kerkuk voter Lists,
    
15. UNICEF, At a glance: Iraq,
    
16. IRIN, “IRAQ: Mixed picture for IDPs in the north!

Gunmen target Iraqi poll HQ

Tuesday 17 January 2006, 13:19 Makka Time, 10:19 GMT

Masked gunmen killed two people in attacks, 30 minutes apart, on an election headquarters and a Kurdish political party office in the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday.
The first attack was at about 7am (0400 GMT) on the offices of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, IECI, in southern Kirkuk, according to Farhad al-Talabani, a police spokesmanFour gunmen walked into the offices and fired randomly at employees, killing one of them and wounding another, he said.

Another police spokesman, Ahmad Hamawandi, said that half an hour later, four gunmen fired on the headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, about a kilometre away, killing one and wounding two others.

Two of the gunmen fired from a stationary car and two others got out of the vehicle and shot at party employees as they entered their offices at the start of the working day, Hamawandi said.

Al-Talabani said: "Police suspect that the first attack on the IECI headquarters and the second attack on the party headquarters might have been conducted by the same group of gunmen."

Also in Kirkuk, a roadside bomb exploded on Tuesday morning as a police patrol passed by, wounding two officers in al-Qassab Khan area in eastern Kirkuk, Hamawandi said.

Kirkuk, 290km (180 miles) north of Baghdad, is a hotbed of ethnic tensions claimed by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.

Shi'ite bloc short of Iraq parlt majority -source

Reuters - London,England,UK... formed by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the ... The Shi'ite Patriotic Rafidain group and the Turkish-speaking Turkmen Front won ...

Kurds challenge Baghdad over oil-exploration rights

Washington Times - Washington,DC,USA... Published reports indicate Kurdistan's oil fields are smaller than those in southern Iraq and near the contested city of Kirkuk. ...

Iraq needs to be one, not three

Iraq’s division into three countries or autonomous regions would be traumatic because there are no clear demographic lines separating each distinctive group. Substantial numbers of Sunnis live in Shiite and Kurdish areas. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis and Turkmen call Baghdad home.