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Iraqi Kurds fear economic fallout from
Turkish incursion 22.10.2007 |
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October
22, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Iraqi Kurds on Monday expressed fear of acute
economic woes in their relatively calm region of
war-ravaged Iraq if Ankara launches a cross-border
incursion against Turkish Kurdish PKK rebels.
"The continuing Turkish threats may result in
closing the borders which would bring about large
damages," said Bahaa al-Din Muhi al-Din, a
43-year-old merchant from the Kurdish city of
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan's cultural capital.
Tension between the two countries has risen since a
midnight attack on Saturday by the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) on a Turkish military patrol
along the border that killed 12 soldiers.
The attack came just days after the Turkish
parliament approved a military incursion into Iraqi
Kurdistan to flush out PKK rebels.
The autonomous Kurdistan region of 'northern Iraq'
imports goods ranging from foodstuffs to electronic
items from Turkey and has been trading with its
neighbour in a peaceful environment compared to some
other violent regions of Iraq.
But Kurdish merchants and citizens now fear that a
Turkish incursion could bring instability to their
region.
"The events are worrying. These threats if
implemented would lead to economic troubles such as
skyrocketing prices," said Asso Tilawi, a foreign
exchange dealer.
"Most of the Kurds are worried, but they do not want
to say it."
Iraqi Shiite MP Amira al-Baldawi warned that both
countries would lose heavily from military action in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
"Iraqi oil exports and the Turkish port of Ceyhan
would take the brunt for any hostilities," she said.
Iraq exports about 300,000 barrels of oil from
northern Iraq through the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
"They (Turkey) are benefiting from Iraqi exports and
they will lose if there was a halt in oil exports,"
she added.
Although estimates of the potential economic loss
from a Turkish incursion were not immediately
available, a week's closure of the Iraq-Iran border
in September led to a loss of one million dollars a
day for the Kurdish region.
Shamal Aziz, who owns a ranch in the remote and
rugged mountains of Qandil where the PKK has bases,
was also worried.
"The Turkish military may not reach our territories
but we are afraid of air strikes," he said.
Aziz said he opposes the presence of the PKK in
Iraq's northern Kurdish region despite sympathy for
their cause.
"It is true the PKK fights for a Kurdish issue in
Turkey, but it must consider the situation in
Kurdistan provinces," he said.
On Monday the ethnically-volatile oil city of Kirkuk
also saw protests against Ankara from local Kurdish
inhabitants.
"No, No to Turkey! No, No to aggression!," cried
hundreds of protesters who gathered outside the
office of Kurdish leader Massud Barzani's Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP).
"We came here to support the Kurdish government's
rejection of the Turkish threats," said protester
Shakiba Khorshid who works for an NGO.
Another protestor standing near her carried a banner
which read: "Stop, Stop Turkey!".
Although locals have not yet resorted to stocking
food and fuel supplies in case of a Turkish
incursion, anti-Ankara sentiment has been running
high across the Kurdistan region.
"We are used to these circumstances as we have faced
such catastrophies in the past. I have not stocked
food or fuel," said Mohammed Taha Hamad, a local
government employee from Erbil, seat of the Kurdish
administration.
But he charged that the Turks "do not want to
understand anything nor do they want to have a
dialogue."
Erbil resident Suhail Tahir, 40, said Turkey will be
the loser.
"We actually do not believe Turkey would commit such
a mistake as it is the only loser. All indications
show that Turkey will lose if it launches the
attack."
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a
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'.
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.
The speaker of the Kurdish parliament, Adnan
al-Mufti said, Turkey is not really after the PKK
rebels but wanted to eliminate the idea of an
autonomous Kurdistan.
"Turks have Kurdophobia," said Mahmoud Othman, a
member of the Kurdistan Alliance bloc in parliament.
"They are afraid of anything Kurdish."
Iraqi Kurds says, the PKK problem is an "internal
Turkish problem,"
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
AFP
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