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Iraq says curbing PKK movements, supply
lines
31.10.2007
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October
31, 2007
BAGHDAD,-- Iraqi authorities have set up more
checkpoints to restrict the movement of Turkey's
Kurdish PKK rebel fighters and cut supply lines to
their mountain hideouts, Iraqi Foreign Minister
Hoshiyar Zebari said on Wednesday.
"There is an increase in checkpoints to prevent the
PKK from getting food and fuel. There are measures
to prevent them from reaching populated cities,"
Zebari told a news conference.
Zebari also said after a meeting with his Iranian
counterpart that "intensive efforts" were under way
to secure the release of eight Turkish soldiers
seized by the PKK rebels in an attack earlier this
month.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the
Iraqi Kurdistan border in preparation for a possible
cross-border incursion to root out an estimated
3,000 PKK rebels, but Washington and Baghdad fear
such an operation could destabilise the region.
More than 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 US and the EU, like Turkey, brand the PKK as a
terrorist group. U.S., Turkish and Iraqi officials
will make diplomatic efforts to avert a major
military operation at a conference of Iraq's
neighbours in Istanbul this weekend.
Iraqi Kurdistan politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's 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'. Turkey fears
this could fan separatism among its own large
Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
Reuters
**
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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