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Maliki: Iraq will not be sanctuary for
Turkey's Kurdish separatists
13.8.2006
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ANKARA, August 12
,-- Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on
Saturday assured Turkish leaders that his country
will not be a sanctuary for Kurdish separatist
rebels from Turkey, the Anatolia news agency
reported.
"We will not allow Iraq to serve as a base for the
PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)," Maliki told
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a
telephone conversation, according to an Erdogan
advisor cited by the agency.
Maliki also indicated that Iraq would continue to
work with the United States and neighboring Turkey
in its fight against the outlawed PKK, considered a
terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington and the
European Union.
Turkey last month threatened to intervene militarily
at the Iraqi border against PKK camps there if
Baghdad and Washington failed to take action. |
Iraqi Prime minister Jawad al-Maliki
Photo:AP |
Turkey has long complained about the PKK using camps
in Kurdistan (northern Iraq) as rear bases for its
attacks in southeast Turkey (Kurdistan-Turkey),
where it is fighting for Kurdish self-rule.
Thousands of PKK members have settled in northern
Iraq's Kurdistan region since 1999, when the group
declared a ceasefire after the arrest of the
separatist movement's chief, Abdullah Ocalan, who is
serving a life prison sentence.
The ceasefire was broken in June 2004. Fighting
between Turkish security forces and PKK rebels has
claimed more than 37,000 lives since the start of
the insurrection in 1984.
AFP
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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