Why did Turkey expel Iraqi Kurdish leader?
Turkey abruptly shut down the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which had been in Ankara since the 1990s, following the PKK's reported abduction of Turkish intelligence agents in an area under PUK control.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu last week visited the Kurdistan region of Iraq. His agenda with Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), focused on the independence referendum the Kurdish administration is preparing for.
Among the Kurdish officials the Turkish minister met was Sadi Pire, a member of the political bureau of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is led by former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. But just as Cavusoglu was on his way back to the Turkish capital, the PUK’s Ankara office was shut down and people working there were asked to leave Turkey. The abrupt closure of the PUK office, which had been operating in Ankara since the 1990s, came as a surprise because nobody could explain it. Why did Turkey take such a radical step when relations with the Kurdish administration were at their best? Ankara didn’t say anything, but information obtained through leaks in Ankara indicated the decision was taken at the request of the Foreign Ministry and had to do with the seizure of Turkish intelligence agents by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Turkish guerrilla group.
Among those asked to leave Turkey within 24 hours was Behroz Gelali, the Ankara representative of the PUK. Actually, while the Ankara government and the Turkish news media kept mum, the news broke out with a statement Gelali made after he arrived in Sulaimaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. In his press statement, Gelali widely referred to the PKK presence around Sulaimaniyah, which is controlled by the PUK, as a primary cause of tensions between Turkey and the PUK. Gelali said, “We did good work the region. We lived through many political crises in 17 years and never reached this level of tension. Last week there was a crisis in Sulaimaniyah that had nothing to do with the PUK. It was mostly Turkey’s mistake. Their Foreign Ministry informed us of their displeasure over an incident in the PUK region. That unfortunately went so far as closing the PUK office in Ankara. Such incidents happen in politics and diplomacy. We remember how the US Army went after Turkish soldiers in 2003 in northern Iraq. Mr. Talabani had mediated for peaceful resolution of the problem between the Turkish and American militaries. States usually solve such problems through diplomacy. But this time Turkey followed a rigid course for solution and told us to keep the office closed until the problem is resolved.”
Gelali said this is the first time the PUK has had such a serious crisis with Turkey and warned the PKK to be aware of the sensitivity of the area and behave accordingly.
