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Turkish opposition leader: would back
military action against Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq
14.1.2007 |
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January 14, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey,-- As Turkey's prime minister
increased pressure on the United States to act
against separatist Kurdish guerrillas based in Iraq,
the main opposition leader on Sunday said his party
would back a cross-border offensive if needed.
Turkey has repeatedly said that it will not tolerate
the disintegration of neighboring Iraq leading to
Kurdish independence, and military officers have
spoken of the possibility of sending in troops to
prevent that.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has severely
criticized the United States this week for not
keeping its promises and finishing off Kurdish
guerrillas holed up in the northern Iraqi mountains.
Deniz Baykal, leader of the main opposition
Republican People's Party, called on the government
to urgently debate a possible military action in
Iraq and empower the military.
"We're ready to back the government on this issue,"
Baykal told his supporters. "We're planning to
invite parliament to debate this."
Erdogan, leader of the Islamic-rooted Justice and
Development Party, said earlier this week that the
United States was ignoring Turkey's suffering in the
fight against the autonomy-seeking Kurdish
guerrillas.
The U.S. has been cooperating with Turkey against
guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK,
but Turkish officials increasingly have found the
level of cooperation unsatisfactory.
"We want solid results," Erdogan said earlier this
week during an interview with private NTV
television.
Asked about past threats of a possible invasion,
Erdogan said, "When the time comes, Turkey will do
whatever is necessary against those threatening our
country with terror."
But invading a country that is already occupied by
U.S. troops could be a disaster for Turkey,
provoking a conflict with the country's best ally.
However, Turkey worries that ethnic and sectarian
clashes are pulling Iraq toward a civil war that
could break the country into 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 pushing Iraq and the U.S. to root out
Kurdish guerrillas who have been waging hit-and-run
attacks on southeastern Turkey from
Iraq since 1984. More than 37,000 people in Turkey
have died in the fighting.
Turkey is also warning that ethnic groups in the
oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk must share
power, amid growing fears that Iraq's Kurds will
seize control of Kirkuk as part of a push for an
independent Kurdish state on the Turkey-Iraq border.
Kirkuk lies just south of the Kurdish autonomous
region stretching across Iraq's northeast. Kurdish
leaders want to annex the city, and Iraq's
constitution calls for a referendum on the issue by
the end of next year.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein 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.
Turkish leaders were expected to raise their
concerns again regarding Iraq during a visit
Thursday and Friday by U.S. Undersecretary of State
Nicholas Burns.
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"
Southeast Turkey. The Kurds have no rights in
Turkey.
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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