Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has denied that his government is still using the fake bomb detectors sold to it by a UK fraudster. This may be true. However, his administration is not above using other dubious devices to divert attention from its own parlous failure to act as the national unity government that voters expected that it would be. Earlier this week, Maliki's acting defense minister Saadoun Al-Dulaimi came up with the extraordinary accusation that Turkey was “controlling” anti-government protests among Iraq's Sunni community. The allegation hardly bears scrutiny but it is worth examining why, at this time of growing crisis in the country, the Maliki administration should seek to “externalize” its troubles and try to blame part of its problems on another country. Dulaimi certainly chose the most provocative terms in which to depict what he says is Turkish interference in Iraq's affairs which has allowed anti-government protests to become a haven for “terrorists and killers”. He said of areas where there has been rising Sunni unrest in the face of divisive government policies that it was as if “Anbar or Mosul or Samarra are part of the Ottoman empire”. Dulaimi's intemperate remarks will undoubtedly have been prompted in part by Turkey's granting of asylum to Iraq's former vice-president Tariq Al-Hashemi, whose arraignment on charges of running death squads, subsequent trial in absentia, conviction and death sentence, have done so much to wreck Sunni confidence in the Maliki government. What is interesting is that the minister chose to link Turkey with Iraq's Sunni community, when in reality Ankara's ties are actually with the country's Kurds. Thanks to the deal struck between the Turkish government and imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, Ankara's uneasy relations with the Kurds in general and the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq are being transformed. In return for increased recognition of the cultural and political rights of Turkey's large Kurdish minority — a government TV station is now broadcasting in Kurdish — the PKK insurgency is coming to an end and Kurdish fighters are withdrawing across the border into Iraq. Regionally, this is a game-changing development for the Kurdish communities, not just in Turkey, but in Syria, Iraq and Iran. They may never obtain the statehood that some still seek, but they now have a high degree of international recognition and the best chance, arguably ever, to carve out some sort of autonomy for themselves. Leaving aside the reality that there are deep tribal rivalries within their disparate community, the Kurds at the moment appear be speaking with one voice, which increases their leverage. This perhaps lies at the heart of the Maliki government's anger with the Turks. Their friends in Tehran will not be pleased to see a resurgent Kurdish cause, not least because some 30 years ago the Iranians had to tackle a potent rebellion among Iranian Kurds, which could now flare up again. When it comes to outside interference, Iraq's acting defense minister should not be talking about the Turks, but rather the Iranians, but that of course would never do. It seems that when Tehran says "jump”, Baghdad leaps into the air. Rather than picking a row with Ankara, the Maliki government should be working with the Turks to build regional stability which will also embrace the Kurds. Turkey has no interest in encouraging Sunni rebellion in Iraq and Dulaimi knows this perfectly well. Blaming outside powers for the consequences of its own short-sighted and divisive policies will fool no one.
