{"id":9246,"date":"2009-02-16T10:44:12","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T07:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=9246"},"modified":"2014-01-01T20:44:55","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T18:44:55","slug":"report-for-obama-how-to-disarm-the-pkk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2009\/02\/16\/report-for-obama-how-to-disarm-the-pkk\/","title":{"rendered":"Report for Obama: How to Disarm the PKK"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Academic Barkey from Lehigh University has prepared a report on conflict prevention in Kurdistan for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
\n

B\u0131a news centre – Washington<\/strong><\/div>\n

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12-02-2009<\/p><\/div>\n


Erhan \u00dcST\u00dcNDA\u011e<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

Professor Henri J. Barkey<\/strong>, chair of the International Relations department at Lehigh University, USA, has prepared a report <\/span>entitled \u201cPreventing Conflict over Kurdistan\u201d for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The report tells the new Obama <\/strong>administration that the Kirkuk issue is pressing. However, the priority must be the solution of Turkey\u2019s domestic Kurdish issue.<\/p>\n

Kurdish issue needs to be handled with care<\/h2>\n

The website of the Carnegie Endowment introduces the report, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe invasion of Iraq has surfaced long-suppressed nationalist aspirations among the Kurds, most notably the emergence of the federal Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). If ignored or mishandled, Kurdish aspirations have the potential to ignite violence and instability in Iraq, as well as the region, at a particularly delicate time.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the report, Barkey warns that US influence in the region will decrease if US forces withdraw from Iraq, one of the main promises of Obama\u2019s election campaign. The academic suggests the following policies:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Break the deadlock between \tthe Iraqi government and the KRG over oil and gas revenue sharing and \trefugee resettlement. This will go a long way toward rebuilding trust and \tpreventing Kirkuk from becoming a flashpoint\u2014the first priority for the \tUnited States.<\/li>\n
  • Continue to support the \tfederal system outlined in Iraq\u2019s constitution and avoid any suggestion \tthat Iraq be partitioned.<\/li>\n
  • Solidify the dialogue \tbetween Turkey and the KRG through U.S. involvement. Warming relations between \tTurkey and the KRG would stabilize the region and aid in a smooth U.S. \ttroop withdrawal.<\/li>\n
  • Demobilize the Kurdistan \tWorkers\u2019 Party (PKK<\/strong>) and encourage its fighters to disarm or defect under \ta joint political and military effort coordinated by the KRG, Turkey, and \tthe United States.<\/li>\n
  • Work with European allies \tto resolve Turkey\u2019s internal Kurdish disputes. Supporting Turkey\u2019s \tcounterterrorism program and its bid for EU accession, and providing \tdevelopment assistance in Turkey\u2019s Kurdish regions would allow the U.S. \tand Europe to address problems from both sides.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Barkey warns that the leftist and rightist nationalist movements in Turkey, as well as the army, need to be convinced to accept Iraq\u2019s federal structure.<\/p>\n

    Amnesty and disarmament in Turkey<\/h2>\n

    As far as PKK disarmament is concerned, Turkey must issue an amnesty. PKK militants should hand their arms over to the US, with Turkey monitoring the process. He believes that a transparent disarmament process would help to get public opinion to support it. As for the leadership of the PKK, they must be allowed to leave the region safely.<\/p>\n

    Following these steps, so Barkey, Iraqi Kurds would have to announce that they would not tolerate any remaining PKK presence, and the KRG must control the area. US military support might be available at this point.<\/p>\n

    Barkey argues that Europe must also take part in this process, and that the PKK must dissolve PJAK<\/strong>, the Iranian branch of the PKK.<\/p>\n

    He also believes that US and European leaders should have direct contact with nonviolent Kurdish leaders in Turkey.<\/p>\n

    The report was introduced at a panel moderated by Marina Ottaway<\/strong>. Barkey discussed <\/span>the report with Qubad Talabani<\/strong><\/span>, a representative of the KRG, and Ian Lesser <\/strong>of the German Marshall Fund<\/strong>.(E\u00dc\/AG)<\/p>\n

    Source: bianet.org<\/span>, 12.02.2009<\/p>\n

    Full text is HERE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Academic Barkey from Lehigh University has prepared a report on conflict prevention in Kurdistan for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. B\u0131a news centre – Washington 12-02-2009 Erhan \u00dcST\u00dcNDA\u011e Professor Henri J. Barkey, chair of the International Relations department at Lehigh University, USA, has prepared a report entitled \u201cPreventing Conflict over Kurdistan\u201d for the Carnegie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,43,89,34],"tags":[793,1111],"class_list":["post-9246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_","category-iraq","category-turkey","category-usa","tag-kirkuk","tag-professor-henri-j-barkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}