Many observers regarded the Iraqi mission to Ankara as being the last chance to preventing a full-scale Turkish invasion of Northern Iraq, or, in the least, a major escalation of armed operations in Iraqi Kurdistan. Az-Zaman claimed that “the negotiations in Ankara have faltered” and that the Iraqi delegation has returned to Baghdad following the diplomatic failure.
According to the paper, the Iraqi officials had offered their Turkish counterparts a deal involving “the exchange of intelligence,” an extradition arrangement, and the handing over of PKK fighters that are arrested by Iraqi and Kurdish forces. The Turkish military rejected the offer, saying that it is a “long-term, routine procedure,” while Turkey is intent on taking “quick measures” against the PKK militia, which has been operating against the Turkish Army out of Iraqi Kurdistan.
A source in the Turkish military told Az-Zaman that “the mission of the Iraqi delegation was doomed to failure, because it had two Kurdish members in it.”
The paper provided what seemed like an insider’s account of the botched talks. The negotiations started badly, Az-Zaman said, when Turkish authorities delayed granting a visa to Kurdistan’s interior minister, Kareem Sinjari, who is a member of the Iraqi negotiating team. “Another round of (Turkish) protests began regarding the presence of two representatives of the Kurdish parties among the negotiators,” which delayed the first round of talks, the paper added. The second round of negotiations was terminated early, with no agreement reached.
Meanwhile, Turkish artillery and fighters have continued their bombardment of PKK positions in Iraqi Kurdistan, joined with Iranian artillery, which, according to Az-Zaman, is targeting positions of the Iranian Kurdistan Party, whose fighters are barricading in the Qandeel Mountain.
On the same theme, pan-Arab al-Sharq al-Awsat conducted an interview with the Iraqi President and Kurdish leader Jalal al-Talabani, in which he detailed his position regarding the PKK crisis and launched an attack on the Syrian leadership for endorsing a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq.
Answering a question on the PKK presence in Iraqi Kurdistan, Talabani said: “this is a delicate matter, and I want to be frank and clear, we have been advising the PKK for some time to abandon armed struggle. We tell them: this is the age of globalization; guerilla warfare is no longer acceptable or useful. We think that the party should reorient itself towards political, parliamentary, media-based ... action rather than armed struggle.”
Talabani also said that the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is “a new democratic phenomenon, that wants to build a new Turkey with a place for the Kurds in it;” adding that armed attacks against Turkey will further “chauvinistic Turkish” voices against Erdogan’s government. On the other hand, Talabani told his interviewer the Americans have guaranteed that they oppose large-scale Turkish operations in the North.
On the Syrian position supporting Turkish attacks to uproot the PKK, Talabani said that “(Syrian President Bashshar al-Asad’s) statements are dangerous, and go against the spirit of Arab solidarity and Iraqi-Syrian solidarity and cooperation.” Talabani described Asad’s position as “transgressing all the red lines.”
In other news, al-Hayat reported on new fractures within the Sadrist Current. According to the London-based daily, a new group has seceded from the Sadrist movement and has formed a new coalition under the name “the Iraqi Patriotic Assembly.” The offshoot contains several leadership figures in the Current, including 'Abd al-Muttalib Mahmud, the ex-Minister of Health who left the Sadrist Current due to differences with the leadership.
The statement inaugurating the new coalition said that its objective is to “gather the (Sadrists) in a patriotic coalition that believes in the political process and rejects violence and militias.” The statement also attacked the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the Sadrist Current, which has been involved in clashes with the security forces and the rival Badr militia in several southern cities in the last few days.
Lastly, al-Mada said that a “major operation” is being planned to uproot al-Qa'ida from the northern city of Mosul. 22,000 policemen and two Army divisions are supposed to participate, according to the police chief of Nineveh, Mosul’s province. Many al-Qa'ida cells have allegedly moved to Mosul, after US and Iraqi military operations minimized the presence of the extremist organization in Anbar and Diyali in the first half of 2007.
