i Turchi nervosi per l'avanzata curd nel nord-irak

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

Turkey Nervously Eyes Kurd Advances in North Iraq
10.04.2003 [15:29]

  Ayla Jean Yackley/Reuters

Turkey on Thursday nervously watched advances by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces
in northern Iraq on Mosul and Kirkuk, fearing Kurds could claim a stake in
the oil cities in a bid to create an independent state.
Financial markets sagged on fears that Turkey's military could intervene to
block the Kurds and thereby dash hopes for a multi-billion dollar U.S. aid
package to ease the shock of war.
Small units of U.S. special forces have been fighting alongside Kurdish
"peshmerga" fighters for control of Kirkuk and Mosul, south of the enclave
run by Kurds beyond Baghdad's control since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
Heavy armor was recently airlifted into the area to boost the U.S. presence.
The British Broadcasting Corporation said Kurdish troops had entered Kirkuk
on Thursday, though there was no confirmation from the Kurds. There was no
immediate reaction from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, which would be looking
for assurances that the U.S. military is in ultimate control there.
Ankara suspects Iraqi Kurds of planning to create their own independent
state based on oil revenues from the Mosul and Kirkuk areas -- a move it
argues would rekindle separatism in Turkey's southeast. The Kurds and U.S.
authorities pledge this will not happen.

RELATIONS STRAINED

The United States initially wanted to launch a much larger "northern front"
by deploying some 60,000 troops across the southeastern border of its NATO
ally, but scrapped those plans after parliament voted against allowing in
the troops in March.
That refusal cost Turkey a U.S. aid package of $30 billion in grants and
loan guarantees. Relations between the traditionally close allies have
soured.
In a bitter irony for Turkey, the refusal to allow U.S. troops to deploy
also left Kurdish forces in a much stronger position in the area Ankara sees
as crucial to its security. The U.S. Congress is now considering a $1
billion grant, convertible into $8.5 billion in loan guarantees, to Turkey.
Diplomats said that while there is no explicit, direct linkage in the
congressional draft bill between the aid and Turkey's role in northern Iraq,
the package would almost certainly depend on Turkey staying out of northern
Iraq.
"I think you could say with some confidence that neither Congress nor the
White House would be inclined to put the billion dollars Turkey's way if
Turkey sent its troops into northern Iraq without agreement (with the
U.S.)," said one Western diplomat.
"The problems such a move would cause for the U.S. military could be
enormous. The Americans don't want that at any price."

WAR WITHIN A WAR

Washington fears its operations further south and in Baghdad could be
undermined by a "war within a war" between Turkish forces and peshmerga, who
vow to resist any Turkish incursion.
Seeking to calm Turkish nerves, it is coordinating closely with peshmerga to
avoid any impression it could cede any control of oilfields to the Kurds.
Turkey's 2030 dollar bond fell around 2.810 points to 91.5 percent of face
value on Thursday on fears that Turkish conduct in northern Iraq could
endanger the $1 billion grant. Turkey has NATO's second-largest army with
around 500,000 men. The military has backed off threats to invade northern
Iraq if Kirkuk and Mosul fall into Kurdish hands, but has reserved the right
to go in if it sees any danger of a Kurdish state being formed.
More than 30,000 people died in southeastern Turkey during the 1980s and
1990s after rebel Kurds launched a campaign for an ethnic homeland.
A few thousand Turkish troops are already inside northern Iraq, and about
40,000 are massed along the border.