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Iraqi PM due in Turkey to discuss Kurdish
rebels
14.10.2006
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ANKARA, October
13, -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will hold
talks next week to discuss bilateral ties and
measures against Turkish Kurd rebels holed up in
Kurdistan (northern Iraq), Turkish officials said
Friday.
During his visit on Monday and Tuesday, he is
scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
Erdogan's press office said the visit was of
"special importance" and described Maliki as a
leader "who works for the protection of Iraq's
political and territorial integrity and for peaceful
ties between Iraq and its neighbors."
The praise for Maliki was in sharp contrast with the
snipes Turkish leaders took last month at Iraq's
Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, who accused
neighbors of meddling in Baghdad's affairs and
threatened to retaliate by supporting their
dissident groups.
Talabani's remarks had a stinging connotation for
Turkey at a time when it is pressing Baghdad and
Washington to crack down on the separatist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), which uses bases in the
mountains of northern Iraq as a spingboard for
attacks across the border in Turkey. |
Iraqi Prime minister Jawad al-Maliki
Photo:AP |
Maliki's visit follows talks here between Turkish
leaders and Joseph W. Ralston, the special US
coordinator with Ankara in the fight against the PKK,
blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much
of the international community.
Ralston said Thursday that a PKK ceasefire since
October 1 was welcome but added that the group
"needs to lay down arms and renounce violence."
Ankara has threatened cross-border operations into
northern Iraq if Washington and Baghdad fail to act
against the PKK, which significantly stepped
violence in Turkey this year.
Ankara charges the rebels enjoy unrestricted
movement in Kurdish-run northern Iraq and are easily
able to obtain weapons and explosives there.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed more than
37,000 lives since the PKK took up arms for
self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984.
AFP
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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