Turkish General Warns US Over Developments In Southern Kurdistan

Turkish NTV
Sep 24, 2007
ANKARA -
A senior Turkish general has warned that the situation developing in Southern Kurdistan was giving power to the region’s Kurdish population. In an address to the Turkish Military Academy to mark the opening of the academic year, General Ilker Basbug, the commander of Turkey’s Land Forces, said that these developments in the north of Iraq were leading to the Kurds gaining political, legal, military and psychological powers that they never had in history. “The USA should by now understand that it is time to act on the PKK and that it should take the situation seriously,” Basbug said. The political decision makers and the public should come to a consensus over the threats that developments in Southern Kurdistan would create, he said, adding that Turkey might not be able to stop the developments in Iraq on its own but could prevent them and thus increase the costs. Basbug said that USA should understand that without gaining Turkey’s support it could not achieve a solution in Iraq. The general also touched the topical issue of the drafting of a new constitution for Turkey, saying that he was against the opening any debate about the secular nature of the Turkish nation. Claims that secularism was in conflict with democracy were lacking any firm basis, he said.
The enemy of the Turkish revolution inspired by Ataturk, the country’s founding father was fundamentalism and backwardness, he said. General Basbug said that the point that they wanted to focus on, which is clearly cited at the beginning of the constitution and article 24, that sacred beliefs of religion should not be used in state works, politics and to gain personal benefits or powers. “Taking religion out of its context and turning it into an ideology would politicise religion which would give the greatest damage to religion itself,” Basbug said.