Sack affair
The sack affair ( Turkish Çuval Olayı , Arabic عملية قلنسوة, DMG ʿAmalīyat Qalansuwa ) is an incident that occurred on July 4, 2003, immediately after the Iraq war . Here were Turkish army personnel , in civilian clothes in the north of Iraq , of the operated US forces captured dissipated and with bags over their heads interrogated. The soldiers were released 60 hours after Turkey lodged a protest with the United States .
Although neither side apologized, a commission was set up to investigate the incident and issue a joint statement of regret. US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also wrote a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , in which he also expressed his regret over the incident.
The sack affair strained diplomatic relations between Turkey and the United States and marked a low point in relations between the two countries. While the incident received little media attention in the US and Europe, it was viewed as an open insult by the Turkish public. The events formed the basis for the 2006 Turkish film Valley of the Wolves - Iraq .
background
The Turkish military has long viewed northern Iraq with its high proportion of Kurdish population as a threat to national security. Between 1984 and 1999 there was bitter fighting between the PKK and the Turkish armed forces, in the course of which over 35,000 people were killed. During this war, the PKK also set up bases of operations outside of Turkish territory in the autonomous northern Iraq and Syria . Although the uprisings in Turkey were suppressed and the PKK followed his suggestion of a ceasefire between 1999 and 2004 after its leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured , PKK fighters increasingly operated from areas outside Turkey. This includes the establishment of the Kurdish Autonomous Region after the Second Gulf War , which should enable the Iraqi Kurds, at least on paper, to achieve relative independence and an end to the oppression of the Saddam regime.
In 1997, Turkey occupied a 15-kilometer-deep strip on the Turkish-Iraqi border, according to its own statements as a "protective strip" for a safe border crossing for any Kurdish refugees. In 1998 Turkey threatened Syria with the threat of war, forcing Abdullah Öcalan to make his stay in Syria impossible, whereupon he applied for political asylum in Italy, among other things, which was not granted and he was ultimately captured by Turkish security forces in Kenya with a passport from the Republic of Cyprus and in Turkey was imprisoned.
Under the protection and pressure of the USA, the Kurdish Autonomous Region developed into a semi-autonomous region and in 1999 a peace treaty was signed between the two most important Kurdish groups in Iraq, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party . Both parties officially renounced the idea of an independent Kurdistan.
The Iraq War
At the beginning of the 21st century, US policy on Asia Minor was viewed as a threat by the Turkish government. The victory of the AKP , one of the two conservative Islamic successor parties of the Fazilet party, the fourth, banned Islamist Milli Görüs party of the Islamist leader and former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, in the parliamentary elections on November 3, 2002 stands in this context . Tensions between the US and Turkey escalated when a massive riot by backbenchers who, still obeying the actual leader of the Milli Görüs movement, Necmettin Erbakan, caused the government to refrain from a planned offensive in the United States to allow northern Iraq from Turkish soil. The decision of the Turkish parliament not to send its own units to Iraq further worsened relations between the two states, but the use of the airspace and military airfields (especially Incirlik Air Base near Adana) was initially kept secret from the Turkish public ) Ministerial decision permitted. On April 24, 2003, two weeks after the capture of Baghdad , a dozen fighters from a Turkish special forces unit were arrested near Erbil . According to a report in Time magazine , they were dressed in civilian clothes and were traveling in a convoy carrying relief supplies. They were intercepted by US units who claimed to have been aware of the group in advance and were taken to the Turkish-Iraqi border a day later.
173rd Airborne commander Colonel William C. Mayville claimed the Turks were there to create an atmosphere that Turkey could have used as a pretext for sending massive "peacekeeping" forces to Kirkuk . They intended to assassinate the Kurdish governor of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk . Mayville also accused Turkey of having links with the Iraqi Turkmen Front .
In the months that followed, Turkey maintained the practice of sending smaller groups of soldiers to northern Iraq to look for PKK bases. They secretly armed the Turkmen Front as a means against the Iraqi Kurds.
Raid on Sulaimaniyya
On July 4, 2003, soldiers from the United States Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade stormed a secret base in the Kurdish-ruled Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyya . The reason was later given that there were intelligence reports that an attack on the Iraqi-Kurdish governor of Kirkuk Province was being planned there. The US soldiers encountered Turkish special forces at this location - unexpectedly according to their own statements - including a colonel and two majors, who immediately arrested them. Turkish sources speak of 11 soldiers commanded by a major. An unknown number of other people were also taken into custody during the raid, 13 of whom were later released. Apart from these and the Turkish soldiers who were released after intense diplomatic activity, a British citizen named Michael Todd, who happened to be in the city to look for his daughter, was arrested and held under dubious conditions. Todd later sued the US.
negotiations
The Turkish military immediately threatened retaliatory measures, including closing Turkish airspace to US military flights, ending use of the NATO base at Incirlik Air Base and sending more units to northern Iraq. A delegation of Turkish military and diplomatic officials immediately went to Sulaimaniyya on Saturday to discuss the incident with American commanders, but Turkish statements say most of them were absent due to the Independence Day celebrations . After protests from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to US Vice President Dick Cheney and from Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül to his counterpart Colin Powell , the Turkish soldiers, who had been in captivity for 60 hours, were released again.
aftermath
The horror at the US approach was great in Turkey. There the newspapers sharply condemned the action and dubbed the American soldiers " Rambos ". General Hilmi Özkök , Chief of Staff of the Turkish Army , said the affair had created a "crisis of confidence" between Turkey and the US.
Others
In the Turkish action - movie " Valley of the Wolves - Iraq " is the bag affair rise to a (fictitious) intelligence revenge operation of the Turkish side to the US troops in Iraq.
swell
- ↑ Human Rights Watch: Turkey and War in Iraq: Avoiding Past Patterns of Violation
- ↑ Who Are the Kurds? Washington Post .
- ↑ a b Ware, Michael. The Turks Enter Iraq . Time . April 24, 2003
- ^ The Economist July 10, 2003: A partnership at risk?
- ↑ Donovan, Jeffrey, " US / Turkey: Ties Hit New Low After Raid On Turkish Forces, " Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty , July 7, 2003.
- ^ Faruk ZABCI: Çuval davası. Geçen temmuz ayında Süleymaniye'de, 11 Mehmetçik'le birligte gözaltına alınan ve üç hafta gözaltında tutulan, bu arada bir parmağı kırılan İngiliz Michael Todd'u, Hürriyet İngiltere'nindu York Kenti'nde bulky. In: hürriyet. October 24, 2003, accessed August 12, 2014 (Turkish).
- ↑ US releases Turkish troops . CNN . July 6, 2003.
- ^ Briton held by US troops in Iraq . BBC . July 22, 2003
- ^ Turkish fury at US Iraq 'arrests' . BBC . July 5, 2003.
- ↑ Turks protest soldiers' detentions . BBC . July 6, 2003.
- ↑ US releases Turkish troops . BBC . July 6, 2003.
- ↑ US arrest of soldiers infuriates Turkey The Guardian July 8, 2003.