Bitter Ethnic War After U.S. Invasion?
February 28, 2003
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2003 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
Iraqi leaders opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein are warning of a possible civil war following an American-led invasion. The warning comes during a clandestine series of meetings, which are currently being held in northern Iraq.
A 65-member council of groups opposed to the rule of Saddam Hussein - divided by politics, religion, and ethnic background -- are united in their opposition to a U.S plan to allow Turkey to send troops into northern Iraq.
The U.S. invasion of Iraq may produce an unintended tragedy - ally fighting ally. In secret meetings and private conversations, Iraqis allied with the U.S. are threatening to fight Turks, who are also allied with America, according Deutsche Welle, Germany's official broadcasting service.
Iraqi opposition leaders fear that a Turkish invasion would encourage other neighbors of Iraq to send in troops, especially Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Iraq will become "a battlefield for foreign interests….they will struggle for power and influence in Iraq," one opposition leader declared, according to the Deutsche Welle report.
Northern Iraq is under a "no-fly zone" established after the first Gulf war, and is maintained by U.S. and British air power. No Iraqi military aircraft are allowed in the zone. Freedom from Saddam's air force allows northern Iraq to exist in relative independence from Baghdad.
The Turks, however, fear that Kurdish rebels operating in northern Iraq will declare an independent Kurdish state, and provoke Kurds living in Turkey to rebel from Turkey. Ankara has repeatedly warned that it would attack northern Iraq if the Kurds in northern Iraq appear to be ready to declare independence.
Turkey has recently suppressed a bloody and prolonged rebellion among Kurdish tribesmen living on the Turkish side of the border with Iraq.
U.S. agreement for a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq is seen among Iraqi opposition leaders as a concession to Turkey and a threat to Iraq's national integrity. The Iraqis fear a prolonged Turkish occupation, with one Iraqi leader declaring that the Turks "will not leave as easily as they came," Deutsche Welle reported.
Northern Iraq is also home to a small, but influential, Christian community. The government in Baghdad has used the Christians, who are generally well educated, for assignments in the governmental bureaucracy.
While Moslem Kurds fear an invasion by Moslem Turks, the Christian community in the north faces pressure from Islamic militants to convert to Islam, according to a report from the right-of-center French news daily, Le Figaro. The Christians of northern Iraq also fear that invading Americans will assume that they are in support of Saddam's regime, and treat them as enemies.
Iraq was ruled for centuries by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The British occupied the region in WWI, and exercised a League of Nations mandate over present-day Iraq until 1932. During WWII British forces again occupied Iraq, after the Iraqi military threatened to support the Axis coalition.
Copyright 2003
International News Analysis Today
Get the whole picture -- independent of the left or the right. Read International News Analysis.
Order 12 issues of International News Analysis
for only $29.95 (U.S. funds; $39.95 Canadian and overseas).
Send subscriptions to:
International News Analysis
2364 Jackson St. #301
Stoughton, WI 53589 U.S.A.
Return to INA
TODAY.com homepage
