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Turkey Offers Training for Iraqi Forces
16.11.2006
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ANKARA, Turkey,
November 16, -- Turkey's prime minister on Thursday
offered training for the Iraqi police and army, and
he urged power-sharing among ethnic groups in the
Iraqi oil center of Kirkuk.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a news
conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki,
that his nation was ready to offer training for
Iraqi security forces to help achieve stability.
``We are ready to give every kind of support,'' he
said. ``We are ready to train them, in the military
field, and in the police field.''
Erdogan also addressed Turkey's fears that Iraqi
Kurds are trying to take control of the northern
"Kurdish" city of Kirkuk as part of their push for
an independent state on Turkey's border.
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.
The city lies just south of the Kurdistan autonomous
region stretching across Iraq's northeast. Kurdish
leaders want to annex the city. Iraq's constitution
calls for a census and referendum is to be held in
late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich Kurdish
province should be annexed to the safe autonomous
Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
``There needs to be a plan for Kirkuk that
encompasses all the ethnic groups who live there,''
Erdogan said.
Turkey worries that ethnic and sectarian clashes are
pulling Iraq toward a civil war that could break the
country apart in several autonomous sections and
lead to the emergence of an independent Kurdish
state.
Such a development, some Turkish analysts say, could
encourage separatist Kurds inside Turkey to revolt.
Turkey is urging Iraq and the U.S. to root out
Kurdish guerrillas, who have been waging hit-and-run
attacks from Iraq in southeastern Turkey since 1984.
More than 37,000 people in Turkey have died in the
fighting.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned this
week that allowing Iraq to split apart would force
its neighbors to take action and usher in ``an
unbelievable new era of darkness.'' |
Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (L) and his
Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki review an honour
guard during a welcoming ceremony in Ankara,
November 16, 2006
Photo:REUTERS
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, left, chats
with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul in Ankara,
Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006.
Photo:AP |
Al-Maliki is being accompanied to Turkey by a large
portion of his Cabinet, including Foreign Minister
Hoshyar Zebari, who is a Kurd, and economy-related
ministers.
Iraq's minister of state for national security,
Sherwan al-Waili, planned to meet Turkish security
officials for talks on possible cooperation in
Turkey's fight against Kurdish guerrillas.
AP
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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