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US forces raid Turkish Kurds refugee camp
in Kurdistan region-Iraq
18.1.2007 |
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January 18, 2007
ANKARA, -- US troops in Iraq on Wednesday
raided a refugee camp housing Turkish Kurds in
Kurdistan (northern Iraq), Turkish news agencies
reported.
Abdurrahman Belaf Berzenci, the elected leader of
the 10,000 refugees at the Mahmur refugee camp, told
the Dogan news agency that US forces moved into the
camp Wednesday morning and went from dwelling to
dwelling checking identity cards.
Berzenci said that there were no violent incidents
during the day.
The Mahmur refugee camp was established in 1992 by
Turkish Kurds fleeing from fighting inside Turkey
between the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and the
Turkish security forces.
Turkey has repeatedly called on the camp to be
closed down, claiming that it harboured PKK
fighters, was a base for the spreading of separatist
propaganda and provided a recruiting pool for the
PKK.
In recent months Turkey has repeatedly asked the
United States to move against PKK camps in northern
Iraq but the US authorities have refused to act,
saying their forces in Iraq are already stretched.
More than 32,000 Turkish soldiers and PKK guerrillas
have been killed since the PKK began its fight in
the early 1980s for independence or autonomy for the
mainly Kurdish-populated south-east of Turkey.
Turkey welcomes U.S. raid on Iraq camp, wants
more
Turkey on Thursday welcomed a raid by U.S. and Iraqi
forces on a refugee camp of Turkish Kurds in
Kurdistan (northern Iraq) as a first step towards
combating Kurdish rebels, but insisted the camp must
be shut down.
Iraqi and U.S. troops conducted a search operation
on Wednesday at the Makhmur refugee camp in northern
Iraq, which Ankara has long argued provides a safe
haven for militants from the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK).
Ankara has been urging U.S. forces to crack down on
the Turkish Kurd PKK rebels, who use Kurdish
northern Iraq as a base.
"We desire a continuation of such steps ... in the
context of our hopes for an end to the presence and
activities of the PKK rebel organisation in Iraq,"
Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The Makhmur camp must be closed. To this end, a
climate must be created in which the PKK presence
and pressure in the camp are ended and our citizens
living there can decide freely on their future," it
said.
"We view yesterday's operation as a first step in
this direction."
The camp was established in the 1990s when thousands
of Kurds from Turkey crossed the border in a
movement Ankara says was deliberately provoked by
the PKK.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said a cache of
mortar rounds had been discovered during Wednesday's
operation, contradicting earlier comments by Iraqi
Kurdish officials that no weapons had been found.
U.S. State Department Undersecretary Nicholas Burns
was in Ankara on Thursday to address Turkish
concerns about the PKK and the general security
situation in Kurdistan autonomous region (northern
Iraq), where Turkey fears the Kurds are bent on
creating an independent state.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has threatened
to send troops into northern Iraq to crush the
rebels if the U.S. and Iraqi government forces fail
to take action, though most analysts dismiss the
threats as rhetoric to impress voters.
Turkey faces presidential and parliamentary polls in
2007.
DPA | Reuters
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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