Ирактағы түрік әскерлерін ұстау оқиғасы (2003)

2003 incident in Iraq involving Turkish and American troops

The Hood event (Çuval Olayı) refers to a 2003 military incident involving Turkey and the United States shortly after the American led invasion of Iraq. On July 4, 2003, a group of Turkish soldiers operating in Iraqi Kurdistan were captured by American troops and, with hoods covering their heads, were led away to be interrogated. Afterwards, American soldiers raided a Turkish safehouse in Sulaymaniyah and seized of explosives in addition to sniper rifles, grenades, and maps of Kirkuk with circles drawn around positions near the local governor's building. Turkey lodged a diplomatic protest with the United States, and the Turkish soldiers were then released after spending 60 hours in American custody. Turkey has been involved in a long running conflict with the Kurds, and one Iraqi Kurdish intelligence official claimed that the Turkish soldiers had been linked to a plot to assassinate the newly elected governor of Kirkuk in order to destabilize the region, opening the way for the Turkish military to intervene. Neither side has issued a formal apology, though a U. S.–Turkish investigative commission later issued a joint statement of regret. Additionally, Donald Rumsfeld expressed sorrow over the incident in a letter to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Hood event severely damaged Turkey–United States relations; both countries are strategic allies under NATO. While the incident received comparatively little coverage in the United States, it was a major event in Turkey. It became known as the "Hood event" (referring to the manner in which the Turkish soldiers were taken away) in Turkey, and many Turkish citizens saw it as a deliberate insult.

Turkey had long viewed northern Iraq, with its large mountain ranges, as a possible national security threat. During the 1980s and 1990s, Turkey fought against PKK, operating mainly in southeastern Turkey. More than 30,000 people were killed and millions more were displaced. During the war, the PKK established bases in Iraq and Syria. Turkish fears intensified after Iraqi Kurdistan gained autonomy after the 1991 Gulf War. In 1996, after a civil war had broken out there, Turkey deployed troops there to monitor a ceasefire between the two main Kurdish factions. 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 PKK in northern Iraq. Under American protection, Iraqi Kurdistan had evolved into a semi autonomous region. U. S. 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. Colonel Bill Mayville, a U. S. brigade commander who was responsible for the region where this took place, 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, with food, security and comfort, and then escorting them back to the Iraqi Turkish border. Turkish sources refer to eleven soldiers commanded by a major. An unknown number of other individuals were also detained during the raid, although thirteen were later released. Apart from these, and the Turkish soldiers who were to be released after intense diplomatic activity, a British citizen named Michael Todd, who was in the area looking for his girlfriend and their 19 month old daughter, was also taken into custody.

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. 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. 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. which by and large agreed with the U. S. government's interpretation. While the story received comparatively little coverage outside of the Middle East, Turkish newspapers loudly condemned the raid, referring to U. S. forces with nicknames such as "Rambos" and "Ugly Americans". On the last day of the incident, Hilmi Özkök, Chief of the General Staff (Turkey), declared that the Hood event had caused a "crisis of confidence" between the US and Turkey. Most recently, the key witness in the Ergenekon investigation, Tuncay Güney, alleged that the event was the U. S. response to the discovery of documents about the clandestine Ergenekon network's Iraq connection in the archives of Tariq Aziz. The Hood event was the inspiration for the 2006 Turkish action film Valley of the Wolves Iraq. The film opens with the depiction of an almost identical incident, following afterwards a fictional story in which the Turkish protagonist seeks retaliation against the American commander responsible for the incident.

Various municipal and government buildings were set on fire in Mosul and Kirkuk by Kurdish forces on 10 and 11 April 2003. A Turkish daily newspaper reported that the Turkish Special Forces soldiers, who were captured by US Army and Peshmerga, had already filmed the deed records and sent the digital records to Turkey before the historical records were terminated. The newspaper also reported that the US party was, in fact, in search of those records, but they were unable to find them. However, Turkish Ministry of Public Works declared that the ministry archives holds historical deed records from the Ottoman era and there were no operations involved. Retired Department of Intelligence Chief of General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, Korg. İsmail Hakki Pekin, claims in his book named "Dikkat Cemaat Çıkabilir KOZMİK ODA" that, after the secret archives about Turkmens captured during the raid, local Turkmen leaders were assassinated or died in suspicious traffic accidents.