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A top
delegation headed by the senior Turkish diplomat
Usman Korturk is to arrive in Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan’s stronghold of Sulaimania late Thursday,
daily Hurriet reports. Sources say that Mr Korturk,
who is accompanied by a number of high ranking
Turkish military commanders, will urge PUK leader
Jalal Talabani, to abandon PUK/KDP common position
on Kirkuk being a “Kurdistani city.”
This is the first official visit by a Turkish
delegation to semi-independent Kurdish region since
elections last January. Mr Korturk voiced concerns
over what he called “irregularities” conducted by
the Kurds during the Kirkuk provincial elections
indicating that more Kurds were registered for vote
in Kirkuk than eligible. Kurdish joint list which
virtually includes all main Kurdish faction won an
overwhelming victory in municipal elections in
Kirkuk province taking over the majority seats at
the Governate Council.
In what appears to be a political consequence of the
provincial polls in Kirkuk, the main Iraqi Turkman
political force, the Turkman Front, decided to
dissolve and make profound changes within its
political structure. Whether Mr Korturk’s visit is
to embrace Turkman issues in Iraqi Kurdistan was
unclear.
http://www.peyamner.com
ANKARA, Feb 25 (AFP) - 19h28 - A Turkish
delegation has expressed fears of Kurdish expansion
across the frontier in northern Iraq in discussions
with Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, a senior
government sources said Friday.
Talabani, who is seeking the Iraqi presidency,
received the Turkish delegation led by ambassador
Osman Korturk at his headquarters near Sulaymaniyah
and discussed "several issues of common interest,"
according to the source, who asked not to be
identified.
"The fact that a Turkish delegation met Mr Talabani
in Iraq shows that Turkey is not opposed to his
becoming president," he added.
They said Talabani pledged that with the exception
of a few small nationalist groups, the Iraqi Kurds
would defend the nation's integrity -- a key point
for Ankara, which feared nationalist contagion of
Turkey's Kurdish minority in the south-east.
The Turkish delegation expressed its concern about
expansion of Kurdish control in the oil town of
Kirkuk, which is the home of Iraq's minority of
Turkish-speaking Turcomans.
Ankara fears that Turkey will seek to annex the town
and turn it into the capital of a future independent
Kurdish state.
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