Iraq Nullifies Kurdish Oil Deals

BAGHDAD,
Nov 24, 2007 (AFP) -

Iraq's oil ministry has declared all crude contracts signed by the Kurdish regional authorities with foreign companies null and void, a government official said on Saturday.

"The ministry has nullified all contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government," the official told AFP, asking not to be named. "They will not be recognised."

The Kurdistan Regional Government has signed 15 exploration and exportation contracts with 20 international companies since it passed its own oil law in August, infuriating the Baghdad government.

Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani has in recent weeks angrily denounced the Kurdish authorities for signing the contracts before the national parliament approves a new oil and gas law, declaring them "illegal".

The government official said the minister had now gone further and nullified all the contracts and had warned the foreign companies involved that they would be blacklisted.

"Minister Shahristani had warned companies who sign contracts without taking the advice of the oil ministry that the ministry would ... blacklist them from any future deals with Iraq," the government official said.

"The minister had told them the oil ministry in Baghdad is the only institution authorised to sign oil contracts before the approval of the oil law."

Shahristani told Monte Carlo radio on Friday that countries neighbouring Iraq would prevent the Kurdish authorities from exporting oil.

"There is an understanding between Tehran, Ankara, Damascus and Baghdad," he said.

"The Iraqi government had warned these companies of the consequences of entering into these contracts," the minister added. "And the consequence is that Iraq will not allow these companies to extract the oil."

The Kurdish authorities reacted sharply on Saturday, saying Shahristani should take the matter to the federal tribunal which deals with disputes between the provinces and the central government.

"The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) signed contracts according to laws passed by the Kurdistan provincial parliament which comply with the Iraqi constitution," said a statement on the KRG website.

"The KRG considers that the minister is exceeding his authority in making these statements," it added. "His statements will not affect our contracts with foreign companies."

It said his comments were reminiscent of the Arab chauvinism of Saddam Hussein's regime.

"We are sorry to hear such statements, which are close to Baathist ones," it said, referring to the Baath party of the ousted dictator.

Regarding the minister's comments on preventing oil being exported, the statement said: "Who said we are exporting oil? We said we signed oil contracts to explore and produce oil -- we know that there must agreement with the federal government on the issue of exporting oil."

The regional government says the contracts will benefit all Iraqis as 85 percent of the returns from the deals would be for Iraq and the rest would go to the contractor.

Iraq's oil and gas bill is stalled in the national parliament amid bitter differences between rival factions.

When approved, the new law will open up Iraq's long state-dominated oil and gas sector to foreign investment.

It will also stipulate that receipts be shared equally between Iraq's 18 provinces, a key concern for the Sunni Arab minority that Washington says has fuelled the anti-American insurgency.

Turkish strike on Kurdish guerrilla bases in Southern Kurdistan was "almost certain.

Nov 17, 2007

Jalal Talabani said Friday a Turkish strike on Kurdish guerrilla bases in Southern Kurdistan was "almost certain. Any strike would be limited and would not affect relations between Iraq and Turkey or between Turkey and the Kurds, KUNA quoted Talabani as saying in an interview during a visit to Kuwait.

Greece urges Turkish 'self-restraint' on Kurdish PKK rebels

Sunday, 04 November 2007,

AFP

Greece called on Turkey to show "self-restraint".

Greece called on Turkey to show "self-restraint" and avoid entering Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' in pursuit of Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels.

"We call on the neighbouring country to show self-restraint," Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis told parliament in response to a question tabled by the far-right LAOS party.

"Violence does not solve, cannot solve problems. Diplomacy must be allowed to run its course," he said.

Karamanlis is technically a family relation of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after serving as a witness at his daughter's marriage in 2004.

Greece is a traditional rival of Turkey but relations have drastically improved in recent years despite ongoing territorial disagreements.

"We condemn terrorism in all its forms, no matter where it comes from," Karamanlis said.

"Respect of territorial integrity is a basic tenet of international law, and no nation should ignore or violate international law."

Turkey has in the past accused Greece of acting as a haven for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 23-year armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday met Turkish leaders with offers of an "effective strategy" against PKK fighters based in northern Iraq in exchange for Ankara holding off on its threat of cross-border military action.

But Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Turkey wants to see action not words in dealing with the rebels.

Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using Turkey's Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish autonomous region in 'northern Iraq', Turkey fears this could fan separatism among its own large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.

Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional government that holds sway in northern Iraq, regretted Ankara's refusal to hold direct talks on the crisis over the Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.

Turkey has never, and still does not, recognize the Kurdistan region government (KRG) and refuses to meet with its representatives in any official capacity. That reflects Ankara's fear that any international respect shown to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region would only embolden Turkey's own large Kurdish minority to seek similar home-rule status.

Rice in Turkey for tough talks to avert cross-border strike

By Sylvie Lanteaume

November 2, 2007

ANKARA -- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Turkey Friday, offering an "effective strategy" against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq , in exchange for Ankara holding off on its threat of cross-border military action.

Heavy security was in place at Ankara's Esenboga airport, with snipers positioned at the complex and sniffer dogs searching for explosives.

"Anything that would destabilize the north of Iraq is not going to be in Turkey 's interest," Rice said during a stopover in Ireland on the way to Ankara . Full Text

Ban Ki-moon heads to Turkey this week for meeting on Iraq

October 30, 2007

30 October 2007 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend a high-level diplomatic meeting on Iraq to be held later this week in Turkey , his spokesperson announced today.

The Istanbul Expanded Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Neighbouring Countries of Iraq will focus on ways to promote greater regional dialogue, Marie Okabe told reporters in New York . Full Text

Turkey Crisis Could Threaten Meeting on Iraq

By Amit R. Paley
November 1, 2007

Nation's Broader Security Issues Should Be Priority, Officials Say BAGHDAD, Oct. 31 -- Senior Iraqi officials expressed concern Wednesday that the escalating crisis in northern Iraq between Turkey and Kurdish guerrillas could undermine an important regional conference this week on the future of Iraq. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned that the tensions should not distract from the main focus of the meeting, set to begin this week in Istanbul, on the far broader security problems of Iraq . Full Text

Iraq Asks for Iran ’s Help in Calming Kurdish Crisis

By Alissa J. Rubin

November 1, 2007

Iraqi officials asked for Iran’s help on Wednesday in negotiating a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Turkey over Kurdish guerrillas who have been using northern Iraq as a base to stage raids on Turkish troops across the border.

Tensions between Iraq and Turkey over the issue threaten to overshadow other topics at a regional meeting that starts Thursday in Istanbul , which Iraq hoped would focus on its internal security. Full Text

Turkish foreign minister arrives in Iraq for talks on the PKK

Tuesday, 23 October 2007, 07:45 EDT

File Photo

Reuters

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with Iraqi.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with Iraqi.
leaders in an effort to pressure the Iraqi government to take action against Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels fighting Turkish troops, as Washington urged Ankara to hold back from unilateral military action.
He is expected to meet Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari.
Babacan was received in Baghdad by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari.
The talks came as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the possibility of joint action with the United States against rear-bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has stepped up its insurgency in southeasten Turkey in recent weeks.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
On Monday, Babacan told reporters in Kuwait that Ankara would "continue to exert these diplomatic and political efforts with good intention to resolve this crisis caused by a terrorist organisation.
"But in the end, if we don't reach a result, there are other means that we may be forced to use."
Turkish members of parliament have authorised the government to take military action in northern Iraq to flush out the rebels if it deems it necessary.
Turkish anger over the presence of PKK rebels in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' intensified after a weekend attack by the rebels on a military patrol that left 12 soldiers dead.
But the government has so far accepted US calls to hold back from unilateral action.
The Turkish prime minister, who was in London for talks with his British counterpart Gordon Brown on Tuesday, said he had discussed with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the possibility of joint action against the rebels.
"We may conduct a joint operation with the United States against the PKK in northern Iraq," Erodgan told the mass-selling Turkish daily Hurriyet on his flight into London.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the US military was considering air strikes on the rebels.
Citing an official familiar with Bush's conversation with Gul, the newspaper said cruise missile launches against PKK targets have been discussed, but air strikes using manned aircraft were an easier option.
"In the past, there has been reluctance to engage in direct US military action against the PKK," the official told the Tribune.
Turkey's top diplomat has been shuttling around the Mideast to explain Ankara's position on the Kurdish rebels, who carried out a cross-border attack Sunday that left 12 Turkish troops dead and eight missing. Thirty-four rebels were also killed, the Turkish military said.
The attack followed a vote by the Turkish parliament last week that gave permission for the government to send troops over the border to wipe out bases belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.

Bush seeks to keep Turkey out of Iraqi Kurdistan

Tuesday, 23 October 2007,

File Photo

chicagotribune

The Bush administration is considering air strikes against the PKK.

The Bush administration is considering air strikes against the Turkey's Kurdish rebel group PKK in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' in an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan to fight the rebels, administration officials said.
President Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone Monday in an effort to ease the crisis. According to an official familiar with the conversation, Bush assured the Turkish president that the U.S. was looking seriously into options beyond diplomacy to stop the attacks coming from Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq'.
"It's not 'Kumbaya' time anymore-just talking about trilateral talks is not going to be enough," the official said. "Something has to be done."
While the use of U.S. soldiers on the ground to root out the PKK would be the last resort, the U.S. would be willing to launch air strikes on PKK targets, the officials said, and has discussed the use of cruise missiles. But air strikes using manned aircraft may be an easier option because the U.S. controls the air space over Iraq, the officials said.
Another option would be to persuade the Kurdistan Regional Government, which runs that part of Iraq, to order its peshmerga forces to form a cordon preventing the movement of the PKK beyond its mountain camps, said U.S. officials and experts. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Kurdistan RegionalGovernment Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday to request his cooperation in dealing with the PKK.
"In the past, there has been reluctance to engage in direct U.S. military action against the PKK, either through air strikes or some kind of Special Forces action," said the official familiar with the Bush-Gul conversation, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But the red line was always, if the Turks were going to come over the border, it could be so destabilizing that it might be less risky for us to do something ourselves. Now the Turks are at the end of their rope, and our risk calculus is changing."
An ambush over the weekend by 200 PKK guerrillas left 12 Turkish soldiers dead and 8 missing. The attack's sophistication and scope surprised not only the Turks but also the U.S. and its Iraqi allies.
The U.S., with Iraqi help, also could squeeze the flow of supplies and funds for the PKK coming across the border, or through the airport in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to U.S. and Kurdish officials and experts. The Bush administration, which has an intelligence-sharing operation with Turkey, also could lean on the Kurdistan Regional Government to provide more of its own intelligence to the Turks, experts said.

file photo

Rice called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday in an appeal for patience, and administration officials said Erdogan granted a 72-hour reprieve on any cross-border attack by the Turkish military. The Turkish leadership is under heavy pressure from its public, with thousands of demonstrators shouting anti-PKK slogans in Istanbul after the weekend ambush. The U.S.-Turkey alliance is particularly important to the Bush administration in its conduct of the Iraq war. About 70 percent of the American military's air cargo headed to Iraq is shipped through a U.S. air base in southern Turkey.
Analysts say the PKK, fighting for Kurdish self-rule since 1984, would like to incite Turkey to attack its bases inside Iraq to help fuel its movement, which lost political ground to the ruling Justice and Development Party, in Turkey's last general election.
"The Turks know these are provocations to draw them across the border, and they're reluctant to charge at that cape, because they know a sword is behind it," said Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey now at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "But Erdogan doesn't have any cards left to play."
Last week, Turkey's parliament authorized the government to send troops across the Iraqi border at any time in pursuit of the PKK.
The Kurdistan Regional Government warned that any air strikes by the U.S. or the Turks could inflame nationalist sentiments among the millions of Kurds who live inside Turkey.
"If the U.S. starts bombing PKK camps in the north, Turkey will be ablaze tomorrow," said Qubad Talabani, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington.
He added that the peshmerga has already formed a sort of security belt around the PKK to keep the fighters from coming down from the mountains into the cities of Iraqi Kurdistan. The only long-term solution, the regional government said, would be for it to be part of a serious dialogue among Turkey, the U.S. and Iraq. It complained that it is currently being left out of any discussions.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd who visited the White House on Monday, said at a Brookings appearance, "My worry is that there are demands of the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] and the Iraqi government to 'fight the PKK.' That could well be a recipe for an open-ended conflict in which we will not win and will basically destabilize the only stable part of Iraq."
Rice issued a statement with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, calling on Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government to "take immediate steps to halt PKK operations from Iraqi territory."
Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Talabany said, "Everyone's passing the buck. The Turks want the U.S. to do something, the U.S. wants us to do something, and we don't think we can do anything. We fought the PKK in the '90s with the full force of the Turkish military and couldn't eradicate them."
On Monday, the PKK issued a statement that it would be ready for a cease-fire "if the Turkish army stops attacking our positions, drops plans for an incursion and resorts to peace," but most analysts dismissed this announcement as meaningless.
"The PKK always declares a cease-fire when winter approaches and it can't operate anyway," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Then when the snow melts, they start fighting again."

Iran's top nuclear negotiator resigns

Saturday, 20 October 2007,

AP PHOTO

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press

The Iranian government announced Saturday that its top nuclear negotiator had resigned

The Iranian government announced Saturday that its top nuclear negotiator had resigned, a move seen as a victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that could bring about an even tougher stance in ongoing talks.

Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham, said Saeed Jalili, a little-known deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs, was to succeed Ali Larijani as lead negotiator effective immediately.
Larijani in many cases held a hardline view on the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West but was also considered to be a more moderate figure than Ahmadinejad within Iran's hardline camp. He was seen as more committed to a diplomatic solution over Iran's nuclear program while Ahmadinejad is seen as not favoring talks with the West.
Larijani's resignation was interpreted by many here as giving Ahmadinejad a free hand in dictating his views to the less experienced Jalili.
Elham did not give a specific reason for Larijani's resignation other than to say he wanted to focus on "other political activities."
"Larijani had resigned repeatedly. Finally, the president accepted his resignation," Elham told reporters.
The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the claim, saying its program is for peaceful purposes including generating electricity.
Elham stressed that Iran's nuclear policy would not change because of Larijani's resignation.
"Iran's nuclear policies are stabilized and unchangeable. Managerial change won't bring any changes in (those) policies," Elham said.
Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said Larijani's resignation was "a clear victory for Ahmadinejad" and shows that "the leadership is determined to continue with the nuclear program."
Bolton, who served as the Bush administration's point man on the Iran nuclear issue before becoming U.N. ambassador, said the conflict between Larijani and Ahmadinejad is "part of the larger struggle for power after (Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei dies."
"It's more about personalities and internal polices, but Ahmadminejad saw Larijani as someone with a different perspective on (nuclear) negotiations," Bolton told The Associated Press, suggesting Larijani was more moderate.
Elham said a meeting between the nuclear negotiator and the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, scheduled for Tuesday in Rome would still take place.
"Despite Larijani's resignation, meetings ... won't change. Larijani's successor will meet Solana instead," Elham said.
Ahmadinejad was elected president in 2005 and appointed Larijani, a former Revolutionary Guards Corps commander and a close ally of Khamenei, to replace Hasan Rowhani, considered a moderate politician. Ahmadinejad had accused Rowhani and his team of technocrats as weak and giving too many concessions in nuclear talks with European nations.
After Larijani was appointed, Iran took a more defiant approach to its nuclear program. It resumed uranium enrichment activities, leading to its referral to the U.N. Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2006. Iran's refusal to halt enrichment subsequently prompted a resolution by the U.N. Security Council imposing sanctions on Iran in December 2006 and another resolution widening the sanctions in March.
In 2006, Larijani rejected Western economic incentives in return for a suspension of Iran's nuclear activities, saying the Security Council "should not think that they can make us happy with candies."
However, differences between Larijani and Ahmadinejad were revealed earlier this year when Larijani became upset after the president contradicted him on whether Iran would attend a meeting in Egypt to discuss Iraq. Larijani traveled to Baghdad in May to discuss Iran's conditions for attending the meeting but was upset after a reporter at the Baghdad airport said Ahmadinejad had already confirmed that Iran would attend.
Larijani's absence during Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Khamenei, last week further raised eyebrows in Iran's political circles.
Before he was appointed, Larijani was the head of Iran's state-run radio and television network and was seen as one of the hard-liners' most effective weapon in curtailing former President Mohammad Khatami's reform program. At the time, Larijani used the official media as a weapon to suppress democratic reforms and prohibited the broadcast of information that might have been harmful to hardline clerics.

Iraq motion next week, no rush for incursion

October 12, 2007

A ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) official has confirmed that the government is planning to send Parliament a motion requesting authorization for a cross-border operation into northern Iraq, but said that an immediate Iraq incursion to hit the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases there seems unlikely.

The motion is most likely to be submitted to Parliament after a Cabinet meeting on Monday, Sadullah Ergin, a senior lawmaker from the AK Party, told the Anatolia news agency. The draft of the text is ready, he said. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a televised interview on Wednesday evening that the motion could be brought to Parliament as soon as Thursday. But Erdoğan suggested that a cross-border operation is unlikely to be launched immediately, saying the approval would be valid for one year and would be used whenever deemed necessary. Parliament, where Erdoğan's AK Party has a large majority, would have to grant permission for troops to cross the border into Iraq .

But passing the measure would not automatically mean Turkish troops would go into northern Iraq . Full Text

Bush, Talabani Discuss Iraq 's Future at White House Meeting

President George W. Bush and President Jalal Talabani of Iraq, shake hands Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007, as they meet in the Oval Office. White House photo by Eric Draper

Voice of America

By Scott Stearns

October 2, 2007

President Bush welcomed Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to the Oval Office to discuss a stable future for the turbulent country. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story. Full Text

301 Concerns Resurface in Dink Trial

By Ercan Yavuz

October 2, 2007

The İstanbul 14th Criminal Court on Monday resumed the trial of suspects in the killing of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in a case that brought up discussions on the Turkish Penal Code's (TCK) Article 301, under which Dink was convicted and which is also seen as a test of the judiciary in investigating possible negligence by authorities. Full Text

Iraq Seeks Long-Term U.S. Security Pact

September 30, 2007

BAGHDAD, Sept. 29 (AP) — Iraq wants the United Nations Security Council to extend the mandate of the United States-led multinational force in Iraq only through the end of 2008, then replace it with a long-term bilateral security agreement, Foreign Ministry officials said Saturday.

Aides to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the mandate extension for the 160,000-strong force, scheduled to be discussed at the end of this year, would be the last. Iraq would then seek an agreement with the United States like the ones Washington has with Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , the United Arab Emirates , Bahrain , Qatar and Egypt , they said. Full Text

Saddam’s Road to Hell documentary wins Emmy award

Other News

KRG.org, 30 Sep. 2007

A British documentary has been recognised with an Emmy award in New York for its “outstanding investigation” into the disappearance of 8,000 Barzani Kurds, one of the major atrocities committed by Saddam’s regime.

Produced by RW Films and screened in North America on the PBS series Frontline World, Saddam's Road to Hell was also shown by Channel 4 in the UK.

The film discovers what happened to 8,000 Barzani Kurds who were abducted by Iraqi Government troops in 1983.Watched by Saddam Hussein at his trial in Baghdad before his execution earlier this year, it directly implicates him in their murder.

The award was made for “Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a News Magazine.”

“We’re delighted,” said executive producer Sadie Wykeham. “The competition was really tough, and for a small production company like ours to take on and beat huge commercial broadcasters like CBS “60 Minutes” and ABC 20/20 is a real achievement.”

Director Gwynne Roberts said: “But beyond that, we’ve also managed to bring home to an international audience the horrors visited on the Kurds under Saddam.”

Directors Gwynne Roberts and John Williams followed a team of Kurdish investigators led by Dr Mohammed Ihsan through Iraq collecting documents, testimony, video and forensic evidence. Passing through Baghdad and the “triangle of death,” the investigators braved roadside bombs and Al Qaeda terrorists.

Their successful search for the remains of the abducted Kurds ended up in the remote deserts of southern Iraq near the Kuwaiti and Saudi borders.

Director John Williams died of a heart attack in northern Iraq during the making of the film.

Turkish Army Chief Issues Perennial Threats Again

REUTERS October 1, 2007 ISTANBUL – Turkey's armed forces said on Monday they faced 'systematic' attack from enemies at home and abroad, but would not be deflected from their role in defending the centralised state and secular system of government. General Yasar Buyukanit, head of the armed forces General Staff, also reaffirmed the military's stiff opposition to an independent Kurdish state in neighbouring (Southern Kurdistan) as a risk to national security. 'The Turkish armed forces are the target of systematic and prejudiced attacks both internally and externally. There is a limit to our partial silence,' he told military cadets in a televised ceremony at the Istanbul War Academy. Buyukanit did not explicitly name the threats, but it was clear from his wider remarks that he was criticising both Kurdish separatists and Islamists opposed to Turkey's separation of state and religion. The army, which ousted a government it deemed too Islamist just 10 years ago, is deeply unhappy about parliament's election in August of Abdullah Gul, who has an Islamist past and a wife who wears the Muslim headscarf, as Turkey's new president. 'No power can change the secular structure of Turkey, no power is strong enough to do this,' Buyukanit said. Gul and the ruling centre-right AK Party, in which he previously served as foreign minister, deny any Islamist agenda. In power, they have pursued reforms aimed at preparing Turkey for European Union membership. The army initially tried to block Gul's election, a move that led Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call a snap July parliamentary election which the AK Party decisively won. That paved the way for parliament to select Gul as head of state in August. Secularists now fear the AK Party government will try to boost the role of religion by overhauling Turkey's constitution, which dates back to a period of military rule in the 1980s. Buyukanit said the army would only comment on the constitution when a final draft text had been unveiled. On Iraq, Buyukanit also sounded an uncompromising note. "The formation of an independent (Kurdish) state in northern Iraq would pose not only a political risk (for Turkey) but a security one too," he said. Turkey fears a Kurdish state in Iraq would fan separatist sentiments among its own large Kurdish population in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. Ankara has been battling separatist Kurdish guerrillas in Northern Kurdistan.

Ahmadinejad questions 9/11, Holocaust

Tuesday, 25 September 2007,

: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at Columbia University, New York, Monday, Sept. 24, 2007.

By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Holocaust revisionists and raised questions about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in a tense showdown Monday at Columbia University, where the school's head introduced the hard-line leader by calling him a "petty and cruel dictator."

Ahmadinejad portrayed himself as an intellectual and argued that his administration respected reason and science. But the former engineering professor, appearing shaken and irate over he called "insults" from his host, soon found himself drawn into the type of rhetoric that has alienated American audiences in the past.

He provoked derisive laughter by responding to a question about Iran's execution of homosexuals by saying: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country ... I don't know who's told you that we have this."

Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, set the combative tone in his introduction of Ahmadinejad: "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator."

Ahmadinejad retorted that Bollinger's opening was "an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here."

"There were insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully," Ahmadinejad said, accusing Bollinger of falling under the influence of the hostile U.S. press and politicians.

Ahmadinejad drew audience applause at times, such as when he bemoaned the plight of the Palestinians. But he often declined to offer the simple answers the audience sought, responding instead with his own questions or long statements about history and justice.

Ahmadinejad has in the past called for Israel's elimination. But his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," but others say that would be better translated as "vanish from the pages of time" - implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed.

Asked by an audience member if Iran sought the destruction of Israel, Ahmadinejad did not answer directly.

"We are friends of all the nations," he said. "We are friends with the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security."

Ahmadinejad's past statements about the Holocaust also have raised hackles in the West, and were soundly attacked by Bollinger.

"In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as the fabricated legend," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad said in his opening remarks. "One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers."

Bollinger said that might fool the illiterate and ignorant.

"When you come to a place like this, it makes you simply ridiculous. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history," he said.

Ahmadinejad said he wasn't passing judgment on whether the Holocaust occurred, but that, "assuming this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people?"

He went on to say that he was defending the rights of European academics imprisoned for "questioning certain aspects" of the Holocaust, an apparent reference to a small number who have been prosecuted under national laws for denying or minimizing the genocide.

"There's nothing known as absolute," Ahmadinejad said. He said the Holocaust has been abused as a justification for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians.

"Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with?" he asked.

Asked why he had asked to visit the World Trade Center site - a request denied by New York authorities - Ahmadinejad said he wanted to express sympathy for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Then he appeared to question whether al-Qaida was responsible, saying more research was needed.

"If the root causes of 9/11 are examined properly - why it happened, what caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved, who was really involved - and put it all together to understand how to prevent the crisis in Iraq, fix the problem in Afghanistan and Iraq combined," Ahmadinejad said.

Bollinger drew strong criticism for inviting Ahmadinejad to Columbia and had promised tough questions in his introduction. But the stridency of his attack on the Iranian leader took many by surprise.

"You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad about the leader's Holocaust denial. "Will you cease this outrage?"

Bollinger's introduction was "very harsh," said Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies at Columbia University.

"Inviting him and then turning around and alienating and insulting an entire nation whose representative this man happens to be is simply inappropriate," said Dabashi, who also criticized Ahmadinejad.

Instead of addressing most of Bollinger's accusations directly, Ahmadinejad offered quotes from the Quran and criticism of the Bush administration and past American governments, from warrant-less wiretapping to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

He closed his prepared remarks with a terse smile, to applause and boos, before taking questions from the audience.

In Iran, Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia could be seen on Arabic satellite channels and state television's Arabic-language service, but it did not appear on channels that broadcast in Farsi, the language of Iran.

Asked about his country's nuclear intentions, Ahmadinejad insisted the program is peaceful, legal and entirely within Iran's rights, despite attempts by "monopolistic," "selfish" powers to derail it. "How come is it that you have that right, and we can't have it?" he added.

President Bush said Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia "speaks volumes about, really, the greatness of America."

He told Fox News Channel that if Bollinger considered Ahmadinejad's visit an educational experience for Columbia students, "I guess it's OK with me."

But conservatives on Capitol Hill were critical. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said he thought the invitation to Ahmadinejad was a mistake "because he comes literally with blood on his hands."

Thousands of people jammed two blocks of 47th Street across from the United Nations to protest Ahmadinejad's visit to New York for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly session. Organizers claimed a turnout of tens of thousands. Police did not immediately have a crowd estimate.

The speakers, most of them politicians and officials from Jewish organizations, proclaimed their support for Israel and criticized the Iranian leader for his remarks questioning the Holocaust.

"We're here today to send a message that there is never a reason to give a hatemonger an open stage," New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.

Hundreds of protesters also assembled at Columbia. Dozens stood near the lecture hall where Ahmadinejad was scheduled to speak, linking arms and singing traditional Jewish folk songs about peace and brotherhood. A two-person band nearby played "You Are My Sunshine."

Signs in the crowd displayed a range of messages, including one reading: "We refuse to choose between Islamic fundamentalism and American imperialism."

The auditorium itself was packed, and students waited hours to be allowed in amid tight security. While the audience booed and applauded several times, it was largely silent as the Iranian leader delivered his point of view.

US Senate To vote On Iraq Division Plan

By Stephen Collinson
AFP Sep 25, 2007

The US Senate is expected to vote as early as Tuesday on a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife.

Though the measure is non-binding, and would not force a change in President George W. Bush's war strategy even if it passes, the vote will provide a key test of an idea drawing rising interest in Washington.

Advocates say the plan, championed by Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Joseph Biden, offers a route to a political solution in Iraq that could allow US troops to eventually go home without leaving chaos behind.

A loose autonomous federation of Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities might look good on paper, but critics charge it ignores Iraq's ethnic stew, such as cities where ethnic groups live side-by-side and inter-marry, and are not divided by lines on a map.

"Critics have come along and said 'I don't like your plan,'" Biden said, adding: "if you don't like Biden's proposal, what is your idea?"

The plan, drawn up with former Carter administration foreign policy expert Leslie Gelb, would provide for a federal system as permitted by Iraq's constitution, stop Iraq from becoming a failed state and:

- Separate Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad in charge of border security and oil revenues.

- Aim to defuse sectarian violence by offering Sunnis a share of oil revenues.

- Boost reconstruction aid and debt relief.

- Launch an international diplomatic effort to rally the world's great powers and Iraq's neighbors to the new federation's cause.

The plan, offered as an amendment to a defense policy bill, already has achieved what many other Iraq war measures have failed to do: attract support from across the political chasm carved in Washington by the war.

Several Republicans, who back Bush's troop surge strategy, but bemoan political deadlock in Baghdad, have signed on.

"We have a flawed political design that we are pushing currently in Baghdad," said Republican presidential longshot Senator Sam Brownback, one of 11 co-sponsors of the bill.

Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison looked for inspiration to the Dayton Peace Accords which led to the creation of a semi-autonomous Muslim-Croat federation and a Bosnian Serb Republic.

"I think what we have seen in Bosnia is a lessening of tensions when there is a capability for the security forces, the educational and the religious sects to have their own ability to govern within themselves," she said.

Critics, who have included the White House, have argued Biden plan is a recipe for more chaos in Iraq.

US ally Turkey would oppose such an initiative, fearful of unrest among its Kurdish population, they say, adding that a partitioned Iraq would lead outside powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia to bolster rival ethnic militia.

Other critics say frontier drawing in the Middle East by western powers has caused enough historical heartache, and it should be up to Iraqis to shape their future.

Some also say that partitioning Iraq, even if Baghdad remains whole, could encourage ethnic cleansing.

US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker backed devolving of power to Iraqi regions, but opposed a formal partition during an appearance in Congress this month.

"Baghdad, in spite of all of the violence it has seen and all of the population displacements, remains a very mixed city, Sunnis and Shia together," Crocker said.

"Any notion that that city of over five million people can be neatly divided up or painlessly cleansed of a huge number of people is just incorrect."

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which delivered recommendations in December warned partition could trigger mass population flows, the collapse of the fragile Iraqi security forces and ethnic cleansing by strengthened militias.

But Biden argued that all other options have failed, and says Iraq's ethnic groups are already separating.

"President Bush, and many Democrats continue to cling to choice number one," he said in a campaign mailing to supporters at the weekend, arguing US troops could not "build or force unity where none exists."

US says Iran smuggling missiles to Iraq

Monday, 24 September 2007,

An Iraqi soldier guards a blast site in Baghdad. The US military detained an Iranian in northern Iraq on suspicion of smuggling bombs on Thursday, sparking a new row with Iran which insisted the man held was part of a business delegation.

By SAMEER N. YACOUB,
Associated Press Writer

The U.S. military accused Iran on Sunday of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

The new allegations came as Iraqi leaders condemned the latest U.S. detention of an Iranian in northern Iraq, saying the man was in their country on official business.

Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said.

An American soldier was killed Saturday and another wounded when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad, the military said.

Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, a denial that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" aired Sunday.

"We don't need to do that. We are very much opposed to war and insecurity," said Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York Sunday to attend the U.N. General Assembly. "The insecurity in Iraq is detrimental to our interests."

Tensions between Iran and the United States have worried Iraqi officials - many of whom are members of political parties with close ties to Tehran.

A 240 mm rocket was fired this month at the main U.S. headquarters base in Iraq, killing one person and wounding 11.

U.S. officials said the rocket was fired from a west Baghdad neighborhood controlled by Shiite militiamen.

On Thursday, U.S. troops arrested an Iranian in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. U.S. officials said he was a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that smuggles weapons into Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the Iranian's arrest, saying he understood the man, who has been identified as Mahmudi Farhadi, had been invited to Iraq.

"The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa, it is responsible for the visa," he told The Associated Press in an interview in New York. "We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, also demanded the Iranian's release.

The U.S. military said the suspect was being questioned about "his knowledge of, and involvement in," the transportation of EFPs and other roadside bombs from Iran into Iraq and "his facilitation of travel and training in Iran for Iraqi insurgents." The military said no decision had been made about whether to file charges.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Farhadi was in charge of border transactions in western Iran and went to Iraq on an official invitation.

He said Iran expects the Iraqi government to provide security for Iranian nationals there and warned the arrest could affect relations between the two neighbors as well.

Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, said a shipment of chlorine had crossed the border from Jordan after concerns were raised about shortages of the chemical needed to prevent an outbreak of cholera from spreading.

Officials said earlier that as much as 100,000 tons of chlorine was being held up at the border for fear it would be hijacked and used in explosives. Several chlorine truck bombs blamed on suspected Sunni insurgents earlier this year killed scores of people.

Naeem al-Qabi, the deputy chief of Baghdad's municipal council, said warehouses in the capital were preparing to accept the chlorine, which would help purify water supplies.

"There is some administrative work needed to be done and it will be finished very soon," al-Qabi said.

Iraq now has a total of 1,652 confirmed cases of cholera after three new cases were confirmed in Salahuddin province, according to an update on the World Health Organization's Web site on Sunday. Earlier, cholera was confirmed in the provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Tamim and Irbil, as well as a case each in Baghdad and in Basra.

"As the weather cools and becomes more favorable for transmission, the organism is expected to spread to other provinces," the WHO's country office in Iraq said on its Web site.

Cholera is endemic to Iraq, with about 30 cases registered each year. The last major outbreak was in 1999, when 20 cases were discovered in one day.

Also Sunday, Iraq's minister of state for national security, Sherwan al-Waili, took over the security operations center in Basra as tensions rose in the southern city following the assassination of a local representative of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The region has been rocked by violence between rival Shiite militias linked to political parties, raising concerns about security as the British military has pulled back its troops from the city center to a nearby airport to allow Iraqi security forces to take over.

Al-Waili told reporters that he will temporarily head the operations center until a new security plan is implemented "very soon" in the city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

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.