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A waiting game in the mountains
By Jason Motlagh
TURKISH-IRAQI BORDER - "They shoot at us every night, from up there," Turkish Captain Imre said, pointing to the forbidding heights where Kurdish separatist fighters sustain a war of attrition. "Not really to kill us, but to harass our troops and let us know they're still there."
A patrol of a dozen Turkish conscripts lumbered up the snow-blanketed ridge to their small base perched at the edge of a steep precipice; Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq lay on the other side. They were fully exposed, and didn't seem to care.
A mixture of isolation and routine had left them listless and starved for contact - be it the rare Western visitor or a stubborn enemy that lives in the shadows above.
"We are always waiting, waiting to make contact with the terrorists," said the Turkish captain, who requested that his last name be withheld, as one of his men used a mirror to check the underside of a Kurdish-owned vehicle for contraband. Another verified passengers' identification cards. "We also know that people who help the rebels, friends and relatives, must come through here all the time."
The stalemate that holds at his post on the Turkey-Iraq border has ruptured elsewhere in the region. According to military officials, 10 Turkish troops and 29 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas have been killed since Turkey launched an aggressive 10,000-strong operation last week against the rebels as winter snows begin to thaw.
The PKK has fought Turkish forces in southeastern Turkey for more than three decades with the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland that includes territory on both sides of the Turkey-Iraq border. The PKK, considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, declared a unilateral ceasefire last October, but it was rejected by Ankara.
Violence has claimed more than 30,000 people since the separatist campaign began in 1984, and shows signs of flaring up again as Turkish and Kurdish politicians face off over the future of northern Iraq.
Last weekend, a surge in political tensions moved Iraqi officials to move an international conference on Iraq to Egypt from Istanbul as scheduled. The row began when Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani threatened to cause unrest among Kurds living inside Turkey if Ankara interfered with its internal affairs. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shot back that Barzani had "exceeded the limits" and "will be crushed by his own words", adding that "northern Iraq is making a very serious mistake with these steps".
This pledge took on new meaning on Thursday when hawkish General Yasar Buyukanit, head of Turkey's military general staff, said a military operation in northern Iraq "must be made" to rout the estimated 4,000 PKK militants hiding there. Turkey maintains it has the right to make such an incursion under international law, although it has reportedly sought permission from the Baghdad government.
The Iraqi constitution calls for a referendum to be held to determine the status of multi-ethnic Kirkuk by the end of this year, one the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) expects will make the oil-rich city part of the northern autonomous region. Turkey fears the financial windfall will give the KRG greater leverage to push for a fully independent state that could incite separatist fervor among the 14 million Turkish Kurds.
Turkey also alleges that PKK guerrillas continue to use northern Iraq as a staging ground for cross-border attacks. Military officials say they have new intelligence about plans for stepped-up PKK attacks inside Turkey starting next month.
To stem rebel activity in the southeastern Turkish badlands - and sympathizers trafficking arms on their behalf - Turkey maintains a lopsided military presence in the region. Checkpoints are frequent, with stops less than every 10 kilometers on some remote stretches of road. The repressive atmosphere feeds the frustrations of Turkish Kurds who say they are stranded in the country's poorest corner without jobs or state-sponsored services.
"The Americans got rid of Saddam [Hussein] but now we are stuck with the Turks, one devil after another," said Fazal, a Kurd from the southeastern city of Hakkari active in the largest pro-Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (Demokratik Toplum Partisi, or DTP). The central government has failed to give Kurds fair treatment, he alleged, noting that he can barely afford to keep three of his children in school. Two years ago his oldest son "went into the mountains", meaning he joined the PKK.
The government counters that it is redoubling efforts to integrate the southeast. Among other projects, local officials note that roads have been improved and expanded, hundreds of low-income housing units have been constructed, and a new program is in motion that gives poor families a stipend every month for each child to cover education expenses.
After making big promises during his election campaign that many Kurds insist have yet to bear fruit, Erdogan paid another high-profile visit to the region late 2005 in which he guaranteed quick results. But more and more Kurds are emigrating across the border to northern Iraq for a fresh start, buoyed by the distant prospect of an independent Kurdistan; others opt to take up the gun with the same idea in mind.
Further down the road that snakes through the rugged borderlands, the Kurdish village of Ortakoy embodied the symptoms of neglect: open sewage drains, broken tarmac, and makeshift hovels from which haggard faces peered out. The only one smiling was a young boy, naked from the waist down, who aimed a toy gun fashioned out of a tree branch at passers-by.
"Bang, bang," he mouthed, and one could not help but think that some day he might also head to the mountains.
Jason Motlagh is deputy foreign editor at United Press International in Washington, DC. He has reported freelance from Saharan Africa, Asia and the Caribbean for various US and European news media.
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