Hood event

The Hood Event (Çuval Olayı in Turkish) was an incident on July 4, 2003 following the 2003 invasion of Iraq where a group of Turkish military personnel operating in northern Iraq were captured, led away with hoods over their heads, and interrogated by the United States military. The soldiers were released after sixty hours, after Turkey protested to the United States.

Though neither side ever apologized, a US-Turkish commission set up to investigate the incident later issued a joint statement of regret. In addition, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote a letter to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing sorrow over the incident. The "Hood Event" damaged diplomatic relations between Turkey and the United States and marked a low point in US-Turkish relations. While the incident received comparatively little coverage in the United States, it was a major event in Turkey, many of whose citizens saw it as a deliberate insult and nicknamed it "The Hood Event". It later became the basis for the 2006 Turkish film "Valley of the Wolves Iraq".

Background

Turkey had long viewed northern Iraq, with its large Kurdish population, as a possible national security threat. During the 1980s and 1990s, Turkey fought against the PKK, a faction of Turkish Kurds that is advocating independence for Kurdistan. More than 30,000 Turks and terrorist were killed and millions more were displaced. During the war, the PKK established multiple bases outside Turkey in Iraq and Syria.cite news | first= | last= | title=Who Are the Kurds? | date=February 1999 | url =http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/feb99/kurdprofile.htm | work =The Washington Post | accessdate = 2007-10-13 ]

Turkish fears intensified after the creation of the Kurdish enclave following the 1991 Gulf War. In 1996, after a civil war had broken out in the Kurdish enclave, Turkey deployed troops there to monitor a ceasefire between the two main Kurdish factions.cite news | first= | last= | title= A partnership at risk? | date=2003-07-10 | url = | work =The Economist | accessdate = ] In 1998, Turkey was able to use military threats to force neighboring Syria to expel PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. However, because of the United States, it was never able to move decisively against the Kurds in northern Iraq.

Under American protection, Iraqi Kurdistan had evolved into a successful semi-autonomous region. US pressure helped lead to a peace deal in 1999 between the major Iraqi Kurdish factions, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq. While both parties officially swore off independence, the Turkish government remained sufficiently concerned, and continued to keep troops in northern Iraq.

The Iraq War

By 2003, many Turks had come to see American foreign policy in the region as a threat. Matters were not helped by the election in 2002 of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), a right-wing, moderately Islamist party. The election of the AKP led to an immediate increase in tensions with America, especially after a massive back bench rebellion by the opposition Republican People's Party prevented the government from allowing the United States to launch a Northern offensive in Iraq from Turkish soil. The Parliament's decision not to send any Turkish troops to Iraq further eroded US-Turkish relations.

On April 24, 2003, only two weeks after the fall of Baghdad, a dozen Turkish special forces were arrested near Arbil. According to "Time" , a weekly world news magazine, they were wearing civilian clothes and intended to infiltrate Iraq, lagging behind a humanitarian convoy, in order to destabilize the region to a level where Turkey could reasonably send its own peacekeeping force. However, they were intercepted by American forces, who claimed they had received prior knowledge of the group.cite news | first=Michael | last=Ware | coauthors= | title=The Turks Enter Iraq | date=2003-04-24 | publisher= | url =http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,446392,00.html | work =Time Magazine | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-13 | language = ]

Mayville accused the Turks of having links to the Iraqi Turkoman Front (ITF), an ethnic-Turkish militia. However, US forces made no effort to incarcerate the Turks, merely detaining them for a day and then escorting them back to the Iraqi-Turkish border. In the following months, Turkey continued its policy of sending small groups of soldiers into Iraqi Kurdistan, ostensibly to search for PKK bases. According to "The Economist", Turkey also began covertly arming the ITF as a lever against the Iraqi Kurds.

Raid on Al Sulaymaniyah

On July 4, 2003, soldiers from the United States Army's 173d Airborne Brigade raided a safehouse in the Kurdish-held Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah. Seemingly acting on an intelligence tip that there were individuals in the safehouse plotting to assassinate the Iraqi-Kurdish governor of the province of Kirkuk. The safehouse instead housed members of the Iraq's Turkoman Front and Turkish Special Forces soldiers, including a colonel and two majors, whom they promptly arrested. [cite news | first=Jeffrey | last=Donovan | title=U.S./Turkey: Ties Hit New Low After Raid On Turkish Forces | date=2003-07-07 | publisher=GlobalSecurity.org | url =http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2003/07/mil-030707-rfel-145944.htm | work =Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | accessdate = 2007-10-13 ] Turkish sources refer to eleven soldiers commanded by a major. [cite news | first=Faruk | last=Zabcı | title=Çuval davası | date= 2003-10-24 | url =http://www.hurriyetim.com.tr/haber/0,,nvid~327392,00.asp | work =Hürriyet | accessdate = 2007-10-13 | language = Turkish ] An unknown number of other individuals were also detained during the raid, although thirteen were later released.cite news| title=U.S. releases Turkish troops | date=2003-07-06 | url =http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/06/turkey.us/index.html | work =CNN | accessdate = 2007-10-13] Apart from these, and the Turkish soldiers who were to be released after intense diplomatic activity, a British citizen named Michael Todd, who was by chance in town to seek his daughter, was also put in custody and kept for a fortnight under trying conditions. [cite news | title=Briton held by US troops in Iraq | date=2003-07-22 | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/3087135.stm | work =BBC| accessdate = 2007-10-13]

Negotiations

The Turkish military immediately threatened retaliatory measures, including closing Turkish airspace to US military flights, stopping the use of the southern Incirlik air base and sending more troops into northern Iraq. [cite news | title=Turkish fury at US Iraq 'arrests' | date=2003-07-05 | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3048090.stm | work =BBC | accessdate = 2007-10-13] A delegation of Turkish military and diplomatic officials immediately left for Sulaymaniyah on Saturday to discuss the matter with the Americans, but according to the Turks most of the American commanders were off celebrating Independence Day. [cite news | title=Turks protest soldiers' detentions | date=2003-07-06 | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3049590.stm | work =BBC | accessdate = 2007-10-13] Following direct protests by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to US Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as by Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Turkish soldiers were released after sixty hours in captivity. [cite news | title=US releases Turkish troops | date=2003-07-06 | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3050122.stm | work =BBC | accessdate = 2007-10-13]

Aftermath

The Hood event made a much greater impact in Turkey than in the West, [citation | last= Bakshi | first= Amar C. | publication-date= 2007-11-12 | title= How Turkey Sees America | periodical= PostGlobal | series= How the World sees America | publisher= newsweek.washingtonpost.com | url= http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/america/2007/11/how_turkey_sees_america_perceptions.html | accessdate= 2007-11-12.] which by and large agreed with the US government's interpretation. While the story received comparatively little coverage outside of the Middle East, Turkish newspapers loudly condemned the raid, referring to US forces with nicknames such as "Rambos" and "Ugly Americans".cite news | first=Michael | last=Howard |coauthors = Goldenberg, Suzanne | title=US arrest of soldiers infuriates Turkey | date=2003-07-08 | work=The Guardian | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,993615,00.html |accessdate=2007-10-11] On the last day of the incident, General Hilmi Özkök, Chief of Staff of the Turkish Army, declared that the hood event had caused a "crisis of confidence" between the US and Turkey.

The event periodically gets front coverage in the Turkish media, such as in the mass-circulation daily "Hürriyet", in keeping with new declarations made to the press by the involved parties and new details divulged, this presently as late as October 2007.cite news | title= Çuval olayında komutan doğru yaptı | date=2007-10-03 |work=Hürriyet | url=http://arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=7410688 |accessdate=2007-10-11|language=Turkish]

The Hood event also was the inspiration for the 2006 Turkish film "Valley of the Wolves Iraq". The film opens with the depiction of an almost identical incident, but then turns into an action movie in which the Turkish hero finally kills the evil American responsible for the incident.

ee also

* Human rights in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq

Footnotes

References

* cite news
first = David
last = Gollust
pages =
title = US, Turkey to Have Joint Investigation into Soldiers Detention
date = 2003-07-08
publisher = Voice of America
url = http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-08-1-US.cfm
* cite news
first = Benjamin
last = Harvey
pages =
title = In Turkish Movie, Americans Kill Innocents
date = 2006-02-02
publisher = Associated Press
url = http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/movies/article.adp?id=20060202084309990001
* cite news
first = Michael and Suzanne Goldenberg
last = Howard
pages =
title = US arrest of soldiers infuriates Turkey
date = 2003-07-08
publisher = The Guardian
url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,993615,00.html
* cite news
first = Ed
last = O'Loughlin
pages =
title = Bad blood lingers after strange days in Kurdistan
date = 2003-07-19
publisher = Sydney Morning Herald
url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/18/1058035204818.html
* cite news
first = Kelley Beaucar
last = Vlahos
pages =
title = Rocky U.S.-Turkey Relations Persist Since Iraq War
date = 2005-04-07
publisher = FOX News
url = http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152683,00.html
* cite news
first = Amberin
last = Zaman
pages =
title = Turkish Parliament Approves Amnesty for Kurdish Rebels
date = 2003-07-29
publisher = Voice of America
url = http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-29-33-Turkish.cfm
* cite news
first = Amberin
last = Zaman
pages =
title = Turkish Troops in Iraq Freed by US
date = 2003-07-07
publisher = Voice of America
url = http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-07-9-Turkish.cfm
* cite news
first =
last =
pages =
title = Regret over Turkish troops' arrest
date = 2003-07-15
publisher = BBC
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3067319.stm
* cite news
first =
last =
pages =
title = A partnership at risk?
date = 2003-07-10
publisher = The Economist
url = http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1914570
* cite news
first =
last =
pages =
title = Turkish fury at US Iraq 'arrests'
date = 2003-07-05
publisher = BBC
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3048090.stm
* cite news
first =
last =
pages =
title = U.S. releases Turkish troops
date = 2003-07-06
publisher = CNN
url = http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/06/turkey.us/index.html
* [http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr141.html Turkey and Iraq: The Perils (and Prospects) of Proximity] by Henri J. Barkey.
* [http://www.nixoncenter.org/publications/Baran070703.htm US-Turkish Relations Strained Further] by Zeyno Baran at the [http://www.nixoncenter.org/ Nixon Center] .

External links

* [http://www.173rdairborne.com/menuiraq.htm 173rdAirborne.com] : Paratroopers of the 173d Airborne Brigade in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003-03-26 – 2004-02-21.
* [http://www.hurriyetim.com.tr/haber/0,,nvid~327392,00.asp Çuval davası] at Hurriyetim.com (In Turkish)
* " [http://www.valleyofthewolvesiraq.com/ Valley of the Wolves Iraq] " - For a contemporary Turkish depiction of the event.