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Talabani says Iraq could extradite PKK
rebels: Turkish govt source
24.10.2007
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October
24, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
has told Ankara that Baghdad could hand over
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels holed up in Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq' to Turkey, a Turkish
government source said Wednesday.
"Talabani told Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
that he did not exclude the possibility of
extraditing members of the Kurdistan Workers'
Party," when the two men met in Baghdad on Tuesday,
the source said.
In response, Babacan said it would be a "good first
step" if Iraq extradited some 100 rebels whose names
are on a list Ankara handed to Baghdad earlier this
year, added the source, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
The issue will be taken up during talks in Ankara
Thursday with an Iraqi delegation comprising mostly
security officials, he said.
"My personal impression is that they might do
something in cooperation with us," the source added.
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Iraqi President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd |
Talabani's remarks were in sharp contrast to his
stance at the weekend when he said Baghdad was
unable to arrest and hand over PKK leaders hiding in
the mountains of Kurdistan in 'northern Iraq'.
According to VOI Talabani rejected Turkish demands
on Tuesday to hand over leaders of the PKK and other
Kurdish leaders. "The PKK leaders are in mountainous
areas we are unable to reach. As far as other
Kurdish leaders, we will never hand over any Kurdish
man come what may. This is a dream that will never
come true," Talabani stressed.
Turkey has long demanded that Iraq prevent the PKK
from using its territory, halt all rebel activities,
limit their movements, close down their camps, cut
off their logistic support and hand over their
leaders to Turkey.
Exasperated over what it sees as US and Iraqi
failure to stamp out the PKK presence in its
war-torn neighbour, the Turkish government last week
obtained parliamentary approval to conduct
cross-border military raids in autonomous region of
Kurdistan in northern Iraq.
Tensions between Ankara and Baghdad rose after a PKK
attack on a military patrol on Sunday killed 12
Turkish soldiers.
Over 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. The PKK was founded in
the 1970s and is committed to the creation of an
independent Kurdish state in a territory which it
claims as Kurdistan.
www.ekurd.net
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
AFP | VOI
**
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)
wikipedia
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