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Residents in Iraq's Kurdistan region
bordering Turkey fear more violence
10.10.2007
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October
10, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Plumes of gray smoke rose from hillsides as Iraqi
Kurdish farmers huddled Tuesday to peek into craters
they said were left by artillery shells that hit
close to Iraq's Kurdistan restive boundary with
Turkey.
Although Ankara has not confirmed any shelling of
Iraqi territory, the Turkish military has said it
was carrying out an operation to track down Kurdish
rebels after a deadly attack that killed 13 Turkish
soldiers Sunday in a clash in the country's
southeast Turkish province of Sirnak.
As part of the operation, Turkish troops have been
bombing areas near the border with Iraq to try to
prevent rebels from fleeing to their bases in the
border mountains of Kurdistan ' northern Iraq', the
Turkish military said.
Iraqi residents, who claimed Turkish artillery
shells landed well into Iraqi Kurdistan, and local
officials in the Iraqi Kurdistan northern region,
feared the shelling was a sign of more to come.
Later Tuesday, Ankara announced after a meeting
between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top
Turkish officials that instructions have been given
to prepare for a possible cross-border military
operation into Iraq to chase separatist Kurdish
rebels.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabagh said the
violence in Sirnak and the killings of the Turkish
soldiers was of "great concern" to Iraq. He extended
condolences to the victims' families and solidarity
with the Turkish people, but stressed that regional
cooperation is key to confronting all terrorist
groups.
Al-Dabagh invoked a September counterterrorism
agreement signed by Iraq and Turkey which prohibits
Turkey from sending troops to Iraq's north, and said
that preserving that agreement was the way to
maintain the security and sovereignty of both
countries.
In the city of Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan
region, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad,
the Kurdish governor warned Turkey on Tuesday its
troops would sustain heavy losses if they invaded
Iraqi Kurdistan region ' northern Iraq'.
"If the Turkish troops decided to enter into the
Iraq's Kurdistan territories, their decision would
be wrong and they would sustain heavy casualties and
material losses," the governor, Nozad Hadi told AP
Television News.
AP Television news footage from the scene showed the
aftermath of the shelling, close to the al-Khalili
border crossing. A Turkish flag fluttered in the
wind on the Turkish side of the border while a huge
"Welcome to Kurdistan" billboard stood on the Iraqi
side.
Turkey has been pressing Iraq and the United States
to hit the bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or
PKK, in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', and has
considered a unilateral military operation across
the border to root out the rebels.
Turkey had been shelling the area earlier this year
and built up its troops on the border but there had
been hopes the situation was calming after the
September agreement.
The U.S. is opposed to a military move by Turkey.
The U.S., along with the European Union, has branded
the PKK a terrorist organization. Its members have
fought Turkish government forces since 1984, seeking
autonomy for Turkey's ethnic Kurds. The fighting has
claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The United States Tuesday
warned Turkey against a
unilateral incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan
in pursuit of separatist PKK
ethnic Kurds, after Ankara said it would authorize
such an operation if it deemed necessary.
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'.
Ankara is anxious to prevent the emergence of a
Kurdish state in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq',
fearing this could fan separatism among its own
large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey. Turkey
is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
AP
**
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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