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Turkey refuses to deal with Iraqi
Kurdistan Government
30.1.2007 |
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January 30, 2007
Turkey today rejected demands from the Iraqi
national oil company SOMO that its companies
should deal in
future with Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan
region (northern Iraq) when doing business there.
Ankara is worried about Kurdish moves towards
greater autonomy in Kurdistan (northern Iraq),
fearing they could spark separatism among its own
Kurdish population in south-east Turkey.
It insists on dealing only with the central Baghdad
government and halted transport of refined oil
products to Iraq over the weekend via its Habur
border crossing in protest at a letter from Somo to
Turkish exporters.
"Our counterpart is the Iraqi central government. We
expect the central government to honour its
contracts. Nobody should test us," Foreign Trade
Minister Kursad Tuzmen told a news conference.
"We have never seen such an irregularity in Iraq,"
he said, adding that Turkey would review its
petroleum trade policy with Iraq if Baghdad did not
comply with existing deals.
Iraq accused Turkish politicians last week of
fomenting division in its northern areas and said it
might bring some form of economic pressure to bear
on Ankara.
Turkey has almost no crude reserves of its own and
imports most of its needs, but re-exports refined
oil products to neighbouring Iraq.
Turkish territory also provides crucial land routes
for Iraq's oil exports to the West. Convoys of
trucks from Turkey brave dangerous roads to supply
Baghdad and other cities as well as US troops based
in Iraq.
Witnesses say a 40-kilometre queue of trucks has
built up at Habur border gate since the weekend
decision.
Kartet, the only Turkish energy company selling
electricity to Iraq, said it had no plans to cut
electricity exports to the country.
"Our electricity exports are continuing with no
interruption," company co-ordinator Nuray Atacik
told Reuters.
Iraqi Kurds, who claim the region as their own and
hope to eventually include Kirkuk in a region of
self-rule in Kurdistan autonomous Region (northern
Iraq), accused Turkey of interfering in Iraqi
internal affairs.
Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the
Ottoman Empire, with Kurds as majority and has a
minority of Christians as well as Turks, Shiite and
Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians.
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.
Based on Iraq's constitution, 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.
AP | Reuters | Agencies
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