Dear Editor:

In his Oct. 23 column “The power of a word,” Todd A. Kulhanek presented a misleading analysis of recent developments in northern Iraq. The members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) are not only members of a separatist organization, but are internationally recognized terrorists. They have trained in northern Iraq, infiltrated into Turkey and conducted terrorist activities against the Turkish military and civilians since 1984.

From 1998 to 2003, the Turkish military crossed the Iraqi border in response to terrorist activities, and as a result, the PKK threat was weakened. It was after the United States invaded Iraq that PKK terrorists regrouped. The U.S. provided protection to Kurds in northern Iraq, where PKK is stationed too. The PKK took advantage of the situation to increase its campaign of terror.

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The Turkish government repeatedly and unsuccessfully requested that the U.S. either respond to the PKK’s terrorism, or grant Turkey access into northern Iraq to defend itself. Turkey’s patience finally wore out and it passed the long-overdue legislation to authorize a military incursion into northern Iraq. Although the legislation has been passed, Turkey is still in communication with the U.S. and trying not to act unilaterally.

Turkey is not, as Mr. Kulhanek says, “throwing a tantrum” about the U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee resolution about the alleged genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman empire in 1915. Turkey did not authorize a military incursion in reaction to the U.S. resolution. The recently escalated murders and destruction by the PKK are the reasons for the Turkish parliament’s action.

The issue of genocide is not as simple as Mr. Kulhanek suggests. Historians continue to debate the events of 1915. Norman Stone, a respected historian, offers the following suggestion in his article “Armenian Story has another Side,” which appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Oct. 16: “Congress should not take a position, one way or the other, on this affair. Let historians decide. The Turkish government has been saying this for years. It is the Armenians who refuse to take part in a joint historical review, even when organized by impeccably neutral academics.”

Readers who are interested in reading fair and balanced accounts of this period of history should refer, among many others, to the two most recent publications: “Armenian Massacres: New Records undercut Old Blame Re-examining History” by Edward J. Erickson, and “World War One: A Short History” by Norman Stone, which was published by Allen Lane.

The U.S. should not sell short a loyal, long-term ally like Turkey for the temporary assistance provided by the Kurds in northern Iraq and for political contributions of the Armenian lobby. Let’s remember that Turkey was alongside the U.S. in Korea, Somalia, Bosnia, the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Fatih Senel

graduate student studying computer science

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