According to an earlier security report by the Ankara Security Directorate, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has illegally been operating in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey under different names. There is the Turkey-based Democratic Liberation Party (PRD), the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK) in Iran, the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party in Iraq and lastly there is the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, organized by the PKK to promote its political activities as well as give directions from one center. The above mentioned illegal organizations of the PKK in four countries make up the sub-arms of the PKK. In this sense, the terrorist organization has been operating like a multinational company, the same security source told to me.
The PKK organized these sub-arms as part of its ideology of setting up an independent Kurdish state in all four countries.
But this ideology of the PKK has received a serious blow in Iraq as the Massoud Barzani-led Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), also the leader of the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, has gained strength since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Now the PKK have come to the point of surviving in northern Iraq only with the support of Barzani.
In other words, the PKK needs Iraqi Kurds to live, let alone promote its ideal of setting up an independent Kurdish state in the region.
PEJAK's name in particular has become known in recent years as Iranian security teams have been launching operations, including air assaults, against its militants and camps, some of which are shared with the PKK in the Kandil Mountains of northern Iraq along the border with Iran. Most PEJAK terrorists are said to have been living together with the PKK in this region.
PEJAK was first set up by the PKK and included mostly women in an attempt to display gender rights. Originally PEJAK was around 50 percent women, my security source said.
But now PEJAK is more closely associated with Iran and seeking independence of Iranian Kurds.
The US, which has included the PKK on its list of terrorist organizations, has nevertheless refrained from pursuing the same policy for PEJAK, recalled the security source.
My source does not believe that the US has been directly supplying arms to PEJAK, but has been extending moral support to this organization by not including it on the list and not pursuing its financial resources.
"Anyway, the US does not have to supply arms to PEJAK because the Middle East in general and northern Iraq in particular is like a trade center for illegal arms. US moral support to PEJAK aims at undermining the Iranian regime," said the same security source.
Meanwhile Iran, which blamed the US of extending support to PEJAK, has also been targeting two birds with one stone through on-and-off operations against terrorist camps in the Kandil Mountains.
While Iran mainly targets PEJAK militants and not the PKK, the Turkish public perceives Iranian assaults as though Tehran has also been fighting the PKK. This is unfortunate, says the security official.
Turkish decision-makers are also well aware of the fact that, behind assaults against PEJAK, Iran's main concern is to weaken this organization that it sees as a direct threat against its unity.
Nevertheless, as one Turkish diplomat put it, while bearing in mind serious shortcomings stemming from Iran's existing regime, Turkey will continue relations with its southeastern neighbor despite the latest angry reaction from NATO ally the US over its recent gas and electricity deal with Tehran.
There have been no similarities at all between the Turkish and the Iranian political systems, but Turkey will continue to act in line with its own national interest which necessitates the continuation of promoting better relations with its neighbors, the senior Turkish diplomat stressed.
"If you do not talk, [you can't discuss] risks that have been increasing with the concerned country in your bilateral relations. In the case of Iran, for example, we are telling the Iranians of the risks its uranium enrichment program has been carrying. They [Iranians] do not like to hear this, but when you have a dialogue you can say the things that they do not like. Similarly, Iranians tell us what they are not happy about with us. Turkey and Iran are neighbors. We have to see this as a means to enrich our relations," said the senior Turkish diplomat.
As a matter of fact, Turkey's trade with the neighboring countries that Ankara viewed as enemies for a long time, mainly during the Cold War years, has been increasing.
According to the latest data revealed by the State Institute of Statistics (DİE), Turkey's exports to neighboring and other local countries have reached $18.4 billion with a 43.5 percent increase in the first six months of this year. Among our immediate neighbors, Iraq ranked first with a 2.7 percent increase in Turkey's exports during the same period, followed by Greece (2.2 percent), Bulgaria (1.9 percent) and Iran (1.2 percent).
Geography dictates our neighbors. Since this is the case, Turkey has been pursuing a very rational foreign policy that needs to be continued for the sake of the country's prosperity.
