IRAQ: The Kurds struggle, inside a tent city

She was singing in a low voice while sewing a frock for her little girl, Tavga Ahmed, who stood quietly at her side. Home for the girl and her mother, Owaz Jamal, is a tent, one of about 200 erected in a remote mountainous area of Iraq near the Iranian border.

This tent city was hastily established after the latest round of air strikes from Turkish forces sent residents of Rezga, about 35 miles away, fleeing for safety. Most left everything behind — their livestock, their clothes, sometimes even their money. It is a life many have become accustomed to as the tensions between Kurdish separatists operating from bases in the mountains lead to clashes with Turkish troops.

In Rezga, people say they also are bombarded by Iranian munitions. Both Iran and Turkey are fighting Kurdish rebels who want a separate autonomous state.

The latest fighting erupted Thursday and Friday, and Turkey's military claimed Saturday that it had killed 150 rebels. The rebels scoff at that. Civilians don't know how many people have died on either side. They just know that they are caught in the middle of this war, which has been going on since 1984.

"We have many livestock that we need to tend. We can't take them to the mountains," said Muhammad Khorsheed. "We can't even work our farms, and we don't know who to complain to." He sees no end to the conflict.

Tensions began rising last fall after Kurdish strikes on Turkish troops over the border. Turkey responded by massing troops along the frontier and staging ocassional air strikes. Then, it staged a surprise ground invasion in February.

The United States considers the main Kurdish rebel group a terrorist organization and says Turkey has the right to defend itself, but it also doesn't want to see northern Iraq — the calmest part of the country — destabilized.

For civilians living in this region, it's too late for that. Saman Haidar returns to his village daily from the tent camp to tend to his livestock. On his last visit a couple of days ago, he described "horrifying air strikes."

"We entered a small shelter which we had built awhile ago. We turned off all our lights," Haidar said. The experience scared him so much that he has given up returning again. When he came to the camp, he brought his livestock with him, in hopes they'd be safe there until the problem was solved.

—Asso Ahmed in Kurdistan

Photos by Asso Ahmed. From top: Owaz Jamal, with daughter Tavga Ahmed, sews inside the family's tent; Tavga  Ahmed washes dishes; about 200 families live in this tent camp; a woman who gave her name as Nashmel scours a pot.

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Comments

[Mizgin]

So we see buried in this story the Turkish propaganda which claims that PKK wants "a separate autonomous state."

This has not been the case for quite a while and was clearly reiterated in PKK's offer of a democratic solution in August 2006.

I know that the LA Times had no comment on the State Department's appointment of Lockheed Martin director and Lockheed Martin lobbyist (registered as such with the US Senate as required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995), retired general Joseph Ralston, as "special envoy" to "coordinate the PKK" for Turkey at the end of August 2006, nor his rejection out of hand of the unilateral ceasefire called by PKK on 1 October 2006. Not so coincidentally, by mid-October, the Turkish government closed a deal to purchase $10 billion of Lockheed Martin's new F-35 aircraft.

I'm also willing to bet that the LA Times expressed sufficient outrage when Israelis littered Southern Lebanon with cluster bombs a couple of years ago, yet published nothing on Turkey's use of cluster bombs last summer against the same civilians it feigns concern for in this piece.

Given the history, who are the real terrorists in the region?

[Azad Dohuki]

History again repeats itself with the US sacrificing natural allies and friends in the Kurds to those who hate Americans - the Turks and Arabs.
Last I looked not a single US soldier had been killed in Kurdish regions of Iraq. Indeed they are as safe as houses. But who are the Americans arming (and funding) in Iraq today? Yes, the very same sunni Arab tribes who have been slaughtering US and Iraqi civilians without mercy.
Once the Americans leave these sunni thugs will turn these US provided arms on the Kurds and the Shias. Maybe this is the grand plan, a return to fascist sunni rule?
And without the PKK in the mountains the Islamists will be free to regroup again in Iraq from the north terrorising iraqis. (Hitherto, the presence of the PKK protected local villagers from Islamists which had been a real problem since 1991.)
What kind of foreign policy exactly is the US following - to allow neighbouring countries (Turkey and Iran) to bomb your allies (the Kurds) and arming to the teeth those (sunni tribes) who have been bombing the hell out of your soldiers for the last 5 years!!!? It beggars belief! One disgusted Kurd.

[Suzan Deyhim]

This artlicle illuminates the tragic results of Turkey's attacks on the Kurds. They use the PKK as an excuse, the real target is the Kurdish people, who are once again, driven from their land. It is a big mistake for the USA to help Turkey in making these attacks. This is the only stable area of Iraq but not for long. And has the US not noticed that Turkey is working with Iran? The real goal is to destabilize Kurdistan. If Turkey wants to solve their PKK problem, they need to stop oppressing their own Kurdish people in Turkey. The PKK is a result of Turkey's inhuman actions towards its own people. Thank you for publishing the truth. The people being hurt are not "terrorists", just innocent civilians, once again.