Basbug warns

North Iraq could become center of attraction for some of Turkey's citizens

Land Forces Commander Ilker Basbug signaled Monday that the main worry of the Turkish Armed Forces regarding northern Iraq is the danger of the region becoming a center of attraction for Turkey's Kurds.

The area which is run by the autonomous administration of the Kurdistan Regional Government seems to be regarded as a main threat to Turkish unity.

"It is a fact that the developments in north of Iraq has given political, legal, military and psychological strength to the Kurds living in the region as they have never had or experienced before in the past. We must be careful about the developments in north of Iraq as these may give some of our citizens a feeling of belonging to this region," the Land Forces chief said.

In a keynote speech delivered at the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year at the Turkish Military Academy, Gen. Basbug stressed that "another problem is the support terrorist organization receives in the north of Iraq and the inaction of the United States Administration and Iraqi government vis-a-vis the terrorist organization (PKK)."

Gen. Basbug stressed the United States must take action against the PKK and understand that the presence of the terrorists in northern Iraq is a serious threat to Turkey.

"The U.S. must understand that a solution reached without Turkey's support in Iraq won't be a lasting one" he added.

The PKK, which is considered as terrorist organization by the US, EU and Turkey, has several scattered terror its bases in northern Iraq.

"The separatist terrorist movement is based on ethnic nationalism. Separatist terror aims to destroy Turkish state and unitary structure of Turkey. Constitutional protection for ethnic identities is required frequently. Such an act openly targets Turkey's nation-state character," he warned.

Basbug stressed that "Ataturk's understanding of a nation-state is not based on religious or ethnic identities. Ataturk's reforms just created a secular nation-state."

General Basbug said the definition of secularism (included in the current Turkish constitution) cannot be made a topic of discussion.

He said Turks always live under the constant threat of terrorism. "As we cannot accept limitations on the rights and freedoms of our citizens we also cannot accept the exploitation of these rights and freedoms."

He recalled a statement by Israeli President Shimon Peres who said political actions can have military repercussions and military actions can have political repercussions. "So we have to have common views and a mechanism for joint decision making by civilian decision makers and the military."

Basbug said terrorism cannot be defeated only by military measures but these have to be supplemented by social, cultural, psychological and political measures.


Basbug warned that developments in northern Iraq have reached a level where they may threaten the security and future of Turkey.

Basbug said the PKK only had 200 members in 1985. This figure went up to 12,000 during the time of incidents in northern Iraq between the Kurds and the Saddam forces between 1993 and 1995. He said in 1995 the terrorists organization decided to concentrate more on cultural and political secessionist actions. After that the PKK was first split into bands of 20 to 30 militants and the down to 7 or 8.

He said the reason why the terrorist organization managed to survive is because it managed to continue recruiting militants and made good use of the instabilities created in the region by the gulf wars.