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War in the Cold

February 29, 2008 1:48 PM

It is cold in the mountains of Kurdistan at this time of year -- very cold, with deep snow on the slopes. 

We flew up to Erbil and drove to the town of Zakho, which is up near where Iraq meets the borders of Syria and Turkey. This is the territory of the PKK, the Kurdish separatist guerrillas who have been fighting the Turks for 25 years and whom the Turks have chosen to attack, now, in the middle of winter.

On Friday, Feb. 22, the Turkish military announced that it was sending ground troops across the border into Iraq to pursue PKK guerrillas -– the U.S., Baghdad and the regional Kurdish government in Iraq have all called on the Turks to exercise restraint and leave quickly. The U.S. has designated the PKK as a terrorist organization.

Originally founded as a communist group, the PKK are pretty unique amongst resistance fighters in their requirement that all recruits -- and they have women as well as men in their ranks -- take vows of celibacy.

From a distance, during the day, the mountains are spectacularly beautiful. We drove north of Zakho into the countryside, and the jagged peaks stretched across the horizon, the snow tinged orange in the late afternoon sun.  The skies were clear blue, except for the white con-trails of jets looping back and forth along the border – U.S. jets, watching the movements of the Turks and the PKK far below.

Every night the temperature drops way below freezing. (Celibacy can't be much fun in that weather.) Why on earth would the Turkish army choose this time of year to send ground troops into deep snow to attack a well-dug-in guerrilla force who know the territory and can see anyone coming for miles against the background of the white snow?

On the face of it, it seems like they could have waited for the snow to melt. Or maybe not. Domestically the Turkish government, which is now run by an Islamic-leaning party, is coming under fire for a controversial new law which will allow women to wear headscarves in universities. This runs against the long-established secular position in Turkey which banned headscarves, and the law has become very awkward for the government. Could it be a coincidence that the Turkish troop incursion against the PKK was announced the same day last week as the headscarf law was passed?  Was the government trying to distract attention from the headscarves with stories of its soldiers staging daring raids against the unpopular PKK guerrillas?

It has not been easy going for the Turkish army. There are reports that some soldiers have frozen to death, and over the weekend one of their helicopters crashed in the mountains. Turkish TV has been carrying images of coffins carrying dead Turkish soldiers being brought back home, although the Turkish High Command is claiming they are killing many more PKK guerrillas. The PKK gives the opposite story, and the fighting is in such an inaccessible area that it is impossible to get any independent confirmation.

Another war on its borders is the last thing Iraq wants. The country already has problems enough with the other five countries who are its neighbors.  There is Iran, whom it accuses of supporting the Shiite militias, and Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, whom it accuses of supporting Sunni militants. And as for Kuwait, well, there is little love lost there after the failed 1991 invasion by Saddam Hussein. An already dangerous neighborhood just got a little bit more dangerous. 

February 29, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

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Posted by: osman tans | Mar 28, 2008 8:16:01 AM

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