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Iraqi PM's to visit Turkey to focus on
Kurds and Kirkuk
14.11.2006
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Erbil, Kurdistan
Region (Iraq), November 14, -- Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki is scheduled to travel to Turkey on
Wednesday, Nov. 15 for a visit focusing on Ankara's
demands for Iraqi military action against Kurdish
separatists allegedly launching attacks on Turkish
targets from bases in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
Al-Maliki is also set to discuss with Turkish
leaders the status of the Kurdish (northern Iraqi)
province of Kirkuk whose incorporation into
Kurdistan is being disputed, with Ankara's backing,
by ethnic Turkmen and Arabs who along with ethnic
Kurds live in the oil-rich area.
Al-Maliki will be accompanied by "a high level
delegation which will study the important and
sensitive issues that influence bilateral relations
between Iraq and Turkey: primarily that of the PKK
[the armed separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party]",
Fariad Rawandozi, chief spokesman of Kurdistan's
main political party, the Kurdish Alliance, told
Adnkronos International (AKI). |
Iraqi Prime minister Jawad al-Maliki
Photo:AP |
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.
According to Rawandozi the talks will also centre on
the work of a trilateral commission - made up of
Iraq. Turkey and the United States - which is
examining the status of Kirkuk. He accused Turkey of
exploiting the "problems in the region" to delay the
incorporation of Kirkuk into Kurdistan.
The former Iraqi president forced about 250,000
Kurdish residents to give up their homes to Arabs in
the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city and the region's
oil industry.
Kirkuk city is not under the full control of
Kurdistan Regional Government administration. A
referendum is to be held in late 2007 to decide
whether the oil-rich Kurdish province should be
annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan region
in Iraq's north.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would
"put pressure" on al-Maliki to close PKK bases in
Iraq and to postpone any decision on Kirkuk,
Rawandozi said.
Other issues on Al-Maliki's agenda in Turkey
included the sharing of water resources and the
possibility of opening up new border crossings
between the two countries to boost trade.
Al-Maliki was originally scheduled to visit Turkey
last month but Iraq's growing security problem
apparently forced a postponement of the trip.
adnki 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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