Yesterday’s bomb blast in Van in eastern Turkey ought to have been heard throughout the Middle East. It could mark the start of a dangerous new destabilizing factor at a time when Iraq is still at its most vulnerable. The attack was almost certainly carried out by Kongra-Gel Kurdish insurgents, who have emerged from the old PKK terrorists whose 15-year fight against the Turkish state ended with a cease-fire in 1999. This outrage has the potential to be far more deadly than any Al-Qaeda bomb blast.
Last week the Kongra-Gel warned that the unilateral suspension of the conflict was coming to an end. Their unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the governor of Van province, which killed five bystanders and maimed a score of others, allegedly came in response to continued action by the Turkish authorities against Kurdish militants. Yet in the last five years, as Ankara has pursued its campaign for EU membership, the official position of Turkey’s Kurdish minority has much improved. Though reforms have not gone far enough, the Kurdish language has been recognized, Kurdish political parties have been legitimized, Kurdish newspapers and broadcast media have been permitted and even the state media broadcast some programs in Kurdish.
All this has been achieved in the face of opposition from some still powerful hard-liners within the Turkish military, who insist that the recognition of the cultural identity of the Kurds threatens the homogeneity of the Turkish republic. It was only with difficulty that Washington persuaded the Turkish government at the time of its Iraqi invasion that the emergence of coherent Kurdish political force in northern Iraq would not rekindle the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. Yesterday’s first attack by the Kongra-Gel seriously compromises that deal. There is evidence that not all the old PKK leadership, most of whom have taken refuge among Iraqi Kurds, approves of the resumption of hostilities. Certainly the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq must be appalled at the potential of renewed conflict. A confrontation with Turkey will undermine the position of the Kurds within the interim Iraqi government and give Premier Iyad Allawi an extra headache.
Both the Americans and the Iraqi-Kurdish leadership must act swiftly and firmly to bring this flare-up of Turkish Kurdish insurrection to an end. If the Kongra-Gel cannot be persuaded to abandon their foolish campaign, then they must be treated severely by their fellow Kurds. By the same token, if die-hard confrontationists within the Turkish military leadership have been seeking to provoke renewed terrorist activity, then the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan must move firmly against them.
The Turkish government must be seen to be committed to the continuation of the five-year peace which has transformed the lives of the people of eastern Turkey. Meanwhile the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq must redouble their determination to avoid a confrontation with Turkey and so drag the whole Iraqi government into a dangerous and pointless diversion.
