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‘Barzani, 57th Turkish government paid peshmerga salaries’
Talabani met with Turkish authorities on May 1, 2000, in Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq, and the Kurdish leader sought $2 million per month to pay the salaries of peshmerga security forces, but the 57th Turkish government at the time agreed to pay only $600,000, according to reports published in the Sabah daily on Tuesday.
Sabah’s report came a day after it unveiled a document that the then-government also met with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani over aid for peshmerga troops.
The Turkish government was cooperating at the time with Barzani and his rival, Talabani, against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has bases in northern Iraq. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), together with the peshmerga troops, fought against the PKK at the time, resulting in many peshmerga casualties.
Sabah reports that the 57th Turkish coalition government, which included Bülent Ecevit’s Democratic Left Party (DSP), Devlet Bahçeli’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Mesut Yılmaz’s Motherland Party (ANAP) approved the aid to Talabani for that purpose.
It said MHP leader Bahçeli approved his coalition government’s move to support Barzani through military and cash assistance. According to the report, the Turkish government and Barzani had meetings in which Barzani conveyed problems they faced and demanded assistance from Turkey. Turkey reportedly agreed to send aid to the Barzani administration frequently and the report says that then-Defense Minister Sabahattin Çakmakoğlu, an MHP member, also put his stamp on the decision.
Between 1999 and 2000, the Turkish government paid $7 million to the Talabani government.
Talabani had also demanded that the Turkish government provide food stocks, various weapons and ammunition to the peshmerga. The Turkish government’s aid, which began in August 2000, lasted two years. The content of the aid was recorded in detail, Sabah reported.
Following Sabah’s coverage on Monday of the 57th government’s cooperation with Barzani, the MHP demanded that records of the alleged aid be made public.
The MHP, stressing that it has not changed its negative view of Barzani, has not denied the Sabah report. However, the MHP has asked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to disclose “what other secret agreements” were made with the current Kurdish regime in northern Iraq.
Opposed to the government’s Kurdish initiative, MHP leader Bahçeli regularly calls on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government to stop its efforts to settle the Kurdish question through peaceful means.
Bahçeli accuses Prime Minister Erdoğan of destroying Turkish national values, saying that his government has in the seven years it has been in power achieved what the PKK failed to do.
The MHP is one of the strongest opponents of the Kurdish initiative and claims that the project is aimed at dividing the country.
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