Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4/10/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ / TURKEY / KURDS (L-O)

NUMBER=2-302047

BYLINE=AMBERIN ZAMAN

DATELINE=ISTANBUL

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Kurdish fighters have seized control of Iraq's oil producing province of Kirkuk, prompting Turkey to announce it would send military observers to the region. From Istanbul, Amberin Zaman reports the United States acts to alleviate Turkey's concerns.

TEXT: Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul says Secretary of State Colin Powell has agreed to the presence of Turkish observers in Kirkuk. Mr. Gul also says he has received assurances from Mr. Powell that U-S troops would immediately be dispatched to Kirkuk to ensure that Kurdish forces left the province. Until the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, Kirkuk province was ruled by the Turks.

Turkey has repeatedly threatened to send thousands of its own troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, should Kurds there attempt to seize Kirkuk. Turkey fears that by gaining control of the region's vast oil wealth, Iraqi Kurds would be able to fulfill their long-cherished dream of independent state by making it economically viable.

The Bush administration, after lengthy negotiations, succeeded in persuading Turkey to keep out of northern Iraq. Turkey was warned by the United States that its troops could come under friendly fire from coalition forces in the region.

Turkey insists that Kirkuk is dominated by an ethnic-Turkish group known as the Turcomens, and is demanding that they be granted fair representation in any future Iraqi government.

It is in fact virtually impossible to determine the exact ethnic makeup of the province because Saddam had for years been forcibly evicting tens of thousands of Kurds and Turcomens from Kirkuk and handing their land to ethnic Arabs brought in from the south. Only those non-Arabs who agreed to identify themselves as Arabs in their official identity papers were permitted to remain.

Analysts say it is unclear how long Turkey would be prepared to hold back the thousands of troops it has massed along its border with Iraq over the past month if the turmoil in Kirkuk persists. Turkey already has several-thousand troops based in the Kurdish enclave, nominally to hunt down Kurd rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party, but the troops also serve to discourage Iraqi Kurds from any moves toward independence.

Turkey fears that the emergence of a Kurdish state on its borders would rekindle separatist sentiment among its own 12-million Kurds. This in turn could re-ignite a 15-year long rebellion waged by the Kurdistan Worker's Party, which ended in 1999, following the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan. (SIGNED)

NEB/AZ/KL/MAR/RAE