Sir, I would like to comment on the editorial published on September 4th, 1996 regarding US policy against Iraq. I was very, much surprised to read the part of the article in which a kind of parallelism was implied between the recent Iraqi offensive and the Turkish fight against terrorism in the last two decades.
Saddam Hussein's latest assault was carried out together with one of the Kurdish factions, which describes itself as an ally of the regime in Iraq, against another political and military Kurdish group having close links with Iran. The aim of this offensive is obviously a desperate attempt by a the Government of Iraq to regain its authority, which had been lost after the Gulf War.
If we go back to the pre-Gulf War situation in the region, it will be recalled that tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens fled into Turkey to escape the chemical weapons which Saddam's army used against them in the Halapja region of Iraq. Contrary to a widespread misconception, those escaping to Turkey were not only Kurds, but also Turcomen, Arabs, Assyrians, Nestorians and Chaldeans. Therefore, Iraq's move was not simply an action taken against the Kurds but against the region as a whole. More than 400,000 Northern Iraqis find safety in the border regions of Turkey.
The logic behind the UN decision creating a buffer zone in Northern and Southern Iraq after the Gulf War was, in fact, to protect Kuwait in the south, and the predominantly Kurdish populated region of Iraq in the north from the atrocities of Saddam. The recent US military action is based on the same intention.
In 1991, during the Gulf War Turkey was one of the main allies of the US, despite heavy economic and political burdens created. The Provide Comfort Operation forces of the allies are still based in the south eastern part of Turkey, with Turkey's consent.
While shouldering her obligations regardless of the costs Turkey was unable to get international support to relieve the difficulties she had to face. The whole Northern Iraq problem has cost Turkey approximately $50 billion up to now. From the political aspect, the price she had to pay was the intensified activities of the terrorist organisation PKK, encouraged by the lack of authority in the region.
I would also like to recall that Turkey acted as one of the main mediators to bring the fighting Kurdish factions in Northern Iraq together during the Drogheda and Dublin meetings last year.
Having suffered a lot from terrorism, Turkey is probably the most peace seeking country in the region. From the establishment of the Republic in 1923, Turkey never had similar problems with the Kurdish or any other ethnic group or minority, and it will not have in the future either. Our fight is against terrorism, and in this case against a terrorist organisation which declares itself as the defender of the rights of Kurdish people, but does not refrain from killing its own people.
Trying to put Turkey and Iraq in the same boat in this matter is not only bizarre, but also a sign of ignorance. Attacking civilians with chemical weapons and driving tanks over them cannot be compared to the legitimate fight of a country against terrorism targeting its territorial integrity and threatening the lives of its citizens, regardless of their ethnic origin. I am sure that the weight of international public opinion is aware of this reality otherwise tolerance shown to terrorism, which is a very dangerous tool, can easily boomerang. Yours, etc., Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, Dublin.