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Iraqi Kurds arrests Turkey Kurdish
politician with PKK links 9.9.2006
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Sulaimaniyah,
Kurdistan-Iraq, September 8, -- The head of an Iraqi
Kurdish party with close links to Turkey's PKK
guerrillas has been arrested, a security official
said Friday, a month after Iraq & Kurdistan
Government promised Turkey it would crack down on
the rebels.
"On Thursday, security forces arrested Faik Mohammed
Kolbi, the leader of the Kurdish Democratic
Solution," an Iraqi officer said in Sulaimaniyah
city in Kurdistan region of so called (northern
Iraq).
The KDS is an Iraqi ally of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting the
Turkish army in Kurdish majority areas of
southeastern Turkey since 1984 in a war which has
claimed 37,000 lives.
Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
promised Ankara that the PKK would no longer be
allowed to operate in Iraq after allegations that it
had mounted renewed cross-border raids.
Kolbi was arrested as a suspect in the February 2005
murder of a PKK dissident, Kamal Shahin, the Iraqi
security official said.
Supporters dismissed the explanation and argued that
Kolbi's detention was a sop to Turkey from Iraqi
authorities eager to show that they are serious in
their crackdown.
Kolbi is a former surgeon who has been a leading
Kurdish militant since 1980 and was elected to the
parliament of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in
1992. He has led the KDS since 2001.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK, blacklisted by Turkey, the United
States and the European Union, took up arms for
self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast
of Turkey.
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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