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ANKARA —
Turkey has dropped its opposition to a federal
structure in neighbouring Iraq guaranteeing broad
autonomy for the country's Kurds, a senior Iraqi
Kurdish leader was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Ankara has long been concerned that self-rule for
the Kurds of northern Iraq could reignite
secessionist violence among its own Kurdish
population in southeastern Turkey. More than 30,000
people died in separatist violence there in the
1980s and 1990s.
But Masoud Barzani, leader of one of the two main
Iraqi Kurdish parties, said a visiting delegation of
high-level Turkish officials had recently signalled
a more relaxed attitude towards the issue of Kurdish
autonomy.
"[They] told us Turkey was not opposed to the
granting of federal status to Iraqi Kurdistan within
the structure of a unified Iraq," NTV television
quoted Barzani as saying.
Turkish officials were not immediately available for
comment on the report.
Barzani said Turkey and Iraq's other neighbours with
their own Kurdish population, Iran and Syria, had to
accept that his people had a right to
self-determination.
"These countries have to realise the Kurds are a
people with certain rights... They must respond with
understanding towards these rights and demonstrate a
civilised, democratic approach. Thus their own
national unity can be strengthened," he said.
"If these rights are disregarded and if the Kurds
are not treated in a civilised manner, the problems
will increase."
Kurds have campaigned hard to win guarantees that
Iraq's new interim government will not take away the
autonomy in the north they have enjoyed since the
1991 Gulf War.
Kurdish leaders recently threatened to quit the
government because a UN resolution endorsing the
transfer of power from US occupying forces on June
30 failed to mention a provisional constitution that
provides for Kurdish self-rule.
But a reference to federalism in the resolution
helped alleviate their fears and UN officials say
they are now confident that Iraq's Kurds and
majority Shiite Arabs will reach agreement on the
issue of minority rights.
For its part, Turkey has been enacting cultural
rights for its estimated 12-million-strong Kurdish
population as part of efforts to persuade the
European Union to open entry talks.
Mathaba.Net
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