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Iraqi Kurds seeking dialogue
26.10.2006 |
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Erbil-Ankara,
October 26 ,-- Iraqi Kurdish leaders are planning to
send a high-powered joint delegation of Kurdistan
Democracy Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) officials to Turkey to mend fences
with Ankara.
Iraqi Kurdish leaders, alarmed at the growing rift
with Baghdad and the deteriorating general security
situation in Iraq, see their dependence on Turkey
increasing and feel the urge to establish closer
links with Ankara.
The New Anatolian learned in Erbil that PUK and KDP
leaders, who established a joint government for the
Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) in May, now plan to
set up a joint team that will travel to Turkey. The
same delegation will then visit Tehran and Damascus
as well as Amman and Cairo.
The KDP tried to establish dialogue with Turkey by
hosting the undersecretary of the Turkish
intelligence agency in Salahaddin, where he met
Kurdistan region President Massoud Barzani and other
high-level officials.
Later a KDP delegation visited Turkish intelligence
headquarters in Ankara. However, these contacts
failed to establish a workable environment for
dialogue between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdish
leaders.
The Iraqi Kurdish leaders see improving ties with
Ankara as a priority because the oil they hope to
produce and sell in the future can only reach world
markets through Turkey.
However, the presence of Kurdistan Workers' Party
PKK rebels in the Kandil Mountains in Kurdistan
region (northern Iraq) and the impasse over the
Kirkuk issue, in contention by Kurds, Arabs and
Turkmens, remain serious stumbling blocks for Ankara
to show any enthusiasm for any meaningful dialogue
with the Iraqi Kurds.
The fact that the PKK presence is so obvious in the
Iraqi Kurdistan region where the PKK group is
allowed to man checkpoints on the roads leading to
the Kandil Mountains and the fact that the KDP's KTV
aired a one-hour interview with PKK leader Murat
Karayilan has deepened Ankara's concerns that the
Iraqi Kurdish leaders are not at all interested in
wiping out the PKK, and instead are facilitating it.
The Iraqi Kurdish leaders led by Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani, who also heads the PUK, say the PKK
has declared a cease-fire and now it is up to Ankara
to reciprocate this "gesture." Ankara does not
accept the PKK as a counterpart and has dismissed
the so-called cease-fire.
Whether Ankara welcomes a joint KDP-PUK delegation
in view of these conditions remains to be seen.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK, took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
thenewanatolian com
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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