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Nechirvan Barzani: The Turkish threats
will not scare us
25.1.2007
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Kurdish parliament criticize Turkey over its
threats against Kurdistan region (northern Iraq)
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), January 24,
-- The regional parliament in Iraq's semiautonomous
Kurdish area held an extraordinary meeting Wednesday
and discussed Turkish threats against it saying that
such language does not scare Kurds.
The meeting came a day after Turkey's main
opposition party increased pressure on the
government to send soldiers to Iraq as parliament
went into a closed-door session to debate the
country's policy on Iraq and to find ways to fight
separatist Kurdish guerrillas based there.
"Kurdistan's parliament reject any interference by
neighboring countries in our affairs," said
parliament speaker, Adnan al-Mufti.
"If Turkey's
intentions toward Iraq were peaceful then why do
they hold closed-door meetings despite that we are
in the time of openness." |
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister
Nechirvan Barzani. |
Turkey has expressed dissatisfaction with U.S. and
Iraqi efforts to contain Turkish Kurdish guerrillas,
who Ankara says have been using bases in Iraq to
fight for autonomy in Turkey's southeast. Opposition
parties have been trying to get the government to
consider possible military action or economic
embargoes to force Iraqi Kurds to cooperate with
Turkey.
On Monday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh
said the government had banned activities by
opposition Iranian and anti-Turkish Kurdish groups
and said it rejected conferences that had been
hosted by Turkey that were viewed as interfering in
Iraq's domestic affairs.
Another source of tension between Turkey and Iraqi
Kurds is the fate of the oil-rich Iraqi city of
Kirkuk that many Kurds hope to take control over and
annex to their region in northern Iraq.
Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan warned Iraqi Kurdish groups against trying
to seize control of the city 290 kilometers (180
miles) north of Baghdad, saying Turkey will not
stand by amid growing tensions among ethnic
Turkomens, Arabs and Kurds in Iraq's oil-rich north.
Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the
Kurdistan regional government, said "the Turkish
threats will not scare us. The era of threats has
ended and we were never a factor of threat for
regional states." He added that had the Kurds wanted
to take Kirkuk by force they would have done it
after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"If Turkey wants to solve the problems by threats
then it will be the main loser," Barzani said after
the parliament meeting.
Barzani: Kurdistan is not
demanding to take back Kirkuk just for oil
Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on
Wednesday said the Kurds were not demanding to take
back Kirkuk just for oil but because they were
evicted from their homes there during the former
Iraqi regime.
He also said talks would start next week with the
Iraqi government to reach an oil law.
"The Kurds are not demanding Kirkuk for the oil and
the oil law to be worked out with the Iraqi
government will solve 60% of the problem," Barzani
told an extraordinary session of Kurdistan National
Assembly.
"When we reach a solution to the oil issue then 60%
of Kirkuk problem will be automatically solved as
everyone will see that we are not demanding Kirkuk
because of the oil but because of the historical
injustices committed against us in this city,"
Barzani said.
"The Kurds are now demanding Kirkuk because they
were evicted of their homes during the time of the
former regime."
"Demanding Kirkuk is all about the land and it is
one of the hardest things that someone comes and
occupies your home," Barzani said.
Barzani criticized on Sunday Erdogan statements as
"mere election propaganda."
The Turkish government has agreed to put the
country's Iraq policy up for discussion in the
550-member parliament, but details of the discussion
are not to be made public.
The United States has cautioned Turkey against any
unilateral military action, fearing that such
intervention could destabilize northern Iraq, the
most stable part of the country.
AP | VOI
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The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced more than 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 a Kurdistani city and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region and it 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.
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