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Iraq to help Turkey against PKK 23.10.2007
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October
23, 2007
Baghdad,-- Iraq agreed Tuesday to help Turkey
deal with 'terrorism' by Turkey's Kurdish PKK
rebels, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said
after talks with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan
in Baghdad.
'We discussed all issues in fully open talks and
reaffirmed the stance that we will jointly fight
terrorism and not make our territories into
launching pads for armed groups, including the
Kurdistan Workers' Party, to poison relations
between our countries,' Zebari said.
He was speaking to journalists after his talks with
Babacan.
Turkey had threatened to send troops over the border
into Iraqi Kurdistan region to halt cross-border
attacks by Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels from the
separatist group - Kurdistan's Workers's party (PKK).
The talks are part of of a diplomatic effort to
forestall threatened Turkish raids in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq' on Kurdish PKK insurgents.
Zebari said the crisis with Ankara would be resolved
through dialogue and good neighbourly relations.
He added that Iraq has not received any lists of
names of Iraqi officials wanted by Turkey but only a
list of wanted PKK leaders.
The Turkish minister reaffirmed Turkey's willingness
to use diplomacy but said it reserved the right to
use other means as well.
'There are several ways of fighting terrorism and we
know which decision to make at the right time,'
Babacan said. |
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, right, shakes
hands with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
during a meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007 at the
Iraqi ministry of foreign affairs in Baghdad, Iraq
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, right, meets Turkish
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, left, in Baghdad,
Iraq, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007 |
Babacan met with Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other
senior officials later Tuesday and discussed the ways of
ending military activities by the Turkey's Kurdish
PKK rebels in
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
Talabani and Zebari are Kurds, but they represent
Iraq's central government.
Turkey refuses to hold talks with the regional Iraqi
Kurdistan authority and accuses its leaders,
especially the Kurdistan region president, Massoud
Barzani, of hindering a potential joint Turkish-
Iraqi operation against Turkey's Kurdish PKK
insurgents, but Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan
region strongly reject the claim.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a
Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to
invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the
establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq', fearing this
could fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
Ankara fears that direct negotiating with Kurdistan
regional government in 'northern Iraq' would be a
kind of recognition of Kurdistan. www.ekurd.net
"Turks have Kurdophobia," said Mahmoud Othman, a
member of the Kurdistan Alliance bloc in parliament.
"They are afraid of anything Kurdish."
Officially, Turkey does not recognise the regional
government of Kurdistan led by president Massoud
Barzani. The Kurdistan regional government is
recognised by US, Iraq and in the new Iraqi
Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan region.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey.
PKK rebels are hiding mainly in the Qandil mountains
of Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' controlled by Iraq's
Kurdistan government.
The group has declared its willingness to agree to a
ceasefire, according to a statement posted on a
Kurdish website on Monday night.
Talabani confirmed the statement and told
journalists Monday that the PKK would end fighting
with Turkey.
But Turkey has in the past viewed similar PKK
statements with skepticism.
In another development, a spokesman for the defence
forces of Iraq's Kurdistan Autonomous Region, said
they were independent of the country's defence
ministry and only took orders from the provincial
leader.
'The defence forces of the province of Kurdistan
take orders only from the general command of the
defence forces of the province,' the independent
news agency Voices of Iraq quoted the spokesman for
the troops' general command, Jabar Yawer, as saying
Monday evening.
The command of the Kurdistan troops (Peshmerga or
Kurdistan national guard) consists of eight members
led by the Kurdistani president Barzani, Yawer said.
Peshmerga and the Iraqi Ministry of Defence are two
independent bodies, which means that coordination
should take place between the forces' general
commander and the general commander of the Iraqi
armed troops, he added.
Yawer's statement is the first Kurdish response to a
demand by the Iraqi Minister of Defence Abdel-Qadir
Muhammad Jasim that multinational forces be
responsible for upholding security.
Jasim was quoted as telling a closed parliamentary
sitting on Monday that Kurdish Peshmerga should be
put under the leadership of the general commander of
the Iraqi armed forces temporarily as deploying army
units from various provinces to northern Iraq would
be difficult without the consent of the US-led
multinational troops.
DPA | Agencies
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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)
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