The sack is still over our heads!

The day before yesterday, the Ankara representatives of the government's two flagship media outlets revisited the prisoner exchange carried out by the MIT at Esenboğa Airport on August 1, involving 26 people held in prisons in the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia, and Belarus, and wrote exactly the same things word for word.

Apparently, someone was not content with this "diplomatic victory" being forgotten in two days, so the message of "look how successful we are" was delivered once again through the media.

The only difference between the reheated news and what was written on the day of the exchange was the announcement that US President Biden watched the swap live. It happened like this:

Before the exchange, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called MIT Chief İbrahim Kalın and requested that the exchange process begin at 17:00 Turkish time; because Biden wanted to watch it live. And we fulfilled this request.

I wonder if Putin was also provided with a live feed... I couldn't tell if an operation was being conducted or a movie was being filmed!..

To tell the truth, the statements made by Russian artist Sasha Skochilenko, who was among those exchanged, immediately after the swap—"The MIT officers were very cool. They were all very stylish. They were like characters in Turkish TV series"—were more impressive than the live broadcast from Esenboğa to Biden.

Another Diplomatic Success

We have another upcoming "diplomatic success" on our agenda.

Ankara is now stepping in to end the tension between Somalia and Ethiopia. While Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan brought the Foreign Ministers of the two countries together for the second time, Erdoğan stated that Turkey's efforts to resolve the tension would continue and that concrete results were expected in the second round of talks.

Done and Dusted

Let's get to the point after these two diplomatic successes.

Immediately after the elections held on December 18 in the ancient Turkmen city of Kirkuk, where the PUK emerged as the leading party, Foreign Minister Fidan announced that they wanted a rotating governorship and said, "We are continuing to work to ensure there is no equation where the PKK and PUK partnership establishes influence in the region."

Although tough negotiations have been ongoing since that day, while the pro-government media signed off on a new "victory" in the last week of July, reporting, "Turkey's initiatives have yielded results: A Turkmen governor will govern Kirkuk after 100 years," we drew attention to the dangerous course of events in Kirkuk just four days ago.

And unfortunately, before the ink on our article had dried, what we feared happened; 9 members who gathered the previous evening—5 from the PUK, three Arabs, and one Christian—as if presenting a fait accompli, elected PUK member Rebvar Taha as the governor of Kirkuk and Arab member Mohammed Hafiz as the head of the Kirkuk provincial council.

Moreover, not in Kirkuk, but at a hotel in Baghdad.

Iraqi Turkmen Front leader Hasan Turan stated that the meeting was unlawful and that they would file a criminal complaint, saying, "The Kirkuk issue cannot be solved by distributing ranks and positions... No one can ignore the Turkmens."

Even the former appointed governor of Kirkuk and Provincial Council member Rakan al-Jabouri reacted to this fait accompli with the words, "The meeting is illegal. The Arabs have been betrayed," but what did the government and its media do?

While the media was content with reporting those reactions, it forgot the headlines it ran 15 days ago: "A Turkmen governor will govern Kirkuk after 100 years." Shouldn't we ask now, "Which diplomatic sources made you run those headlines?!"

As for the government, there was no sound or word while this article was being written. Only a "Foreign Ministry official" spoke again, stating that negotiations were continuing based on the "rotating governorship" principle, and noted that it should be "examined whether the decisions allegedly taken at the meeting in Baghdad have any legal validity." The same official also noted the following:

"In any case, it is clear that an attempt to determine the high-level positions in Kirkuk through a fait accompli, in a setup that does not include Turkmens, the KDP, and other Arab members, will not serve social peace and tranquility in the province. It is obvious that this group is far from representing the whole of Kirkuk. We will follow the developments closely."

While Ankara "continues to follow the developments closely," PUK leader Bafel Talabani and the PKK declared their "victory."

In the message he published, Bafel Talabani, who said, "Do not congratulate the PUK. Congratulate Kirkuk, the people of Kirkuk. The PUK will base its policy in Kirkuk on Mam Jalal's politics," it was interesting that he did not answer the question regarding why the Barzanis' KDP, the Iraqi Turkmen Front, and some Arab components did not attend the meeting.

Why was it interesting?

Because Ankara and its media think only the PUK is harboring the PKK, and they have fallen into the delusion that the Barzanis have now given up on their ambitions for Kirkuk and are our "friends."

However, this is absolutely not true; they are just playing "good cop." They appeared to accept Ankara's "rotating governorship" proposal regarding Kirkuk, but as we have written repeatedly, they have never given up on the goal of having a Kurdish governor run the place. The fact that KDP members did not attend the meeting in Baghdad is also a requirement of this "good cop" role. After all, the quorum of 9 was found.

If it were otherwise; the KDP's relations with the PUK are quite good. If the Barzanis had told Bafel Talabani not to carry out this fait accompli, it would not have been done.

Indeed, a KDP spokesperson who made a statement yesterday evening also used the expressions "illegal, problematic, and not carried out in a correct manner" for the Baghdad incident, and said, "President Masoud Barzani's idea was the appointment of a Kurdish and neutral governor that all parties would accept."

By the way, didn't Erdoğan and Hakan Fidan call the Barzanis, whom they are close "friends and companions" with, at all?

I wonder if they were unaware of what was happening right under our noses while they were rushing from country to country following developments in Ethiopia and Somalia?

There is a "Friend" of Ours Who Filmed the Sack

Let's elaborate a bit more:

There is someone else in "Barzanistan" whom our side considers a "friend": Qubad Talabani, the PUK Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.

He is the brother of Bafel Talabani, who carried out the Kirkuk fait accompli. Whenever the PUK and Bafel Talabani give us a headache, Ankara meets with him and says, "Cut your ties with the PKK."

What are the thoughts of this Qubad Talabani, the Barzanis' Deputy Prime Minister, regarding Kirkuk?

He has always claimed that Kirkuk is "part of Kurdistan." In 2017, when the Kirkuk Provincial Council decided to hang the "Barzanistan" rag in the city, he said, "May it be auspicious for our flag to wave in the Jerusalem of Kurdistan."

Qubad Talabani has another feature that is important for us.

Do you remember the reason why the US put a sack over the heads of our soldiers at the PUK headquarters in Sulaymaniyah on July 4, 2003?

They did it to cut the TSK's connection with Kirkuk and the Iraqi Turkmen Front.

And it was Qubad Talabani who filmed this treachery carried out by the US, which is still our "ally"!..

In short; the audacity of the latest fait accompli in Kirkuk shows that, unfortunately, that sack is still over our heads!..