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An attack across the border would mean
war, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani warns
29.10.2007 |
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Any
move by Turkish troops into Kurdistan territory
would be a declaration of war, the region’s leader
said.
October
29, 2007
Iraqi Kurdistan President Barzani gave the warning
as a new wave of clashes inside Turkey left up to 20
Kurdish guerrillas dead. He said that Ankara was
using its grievances with the Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK) as an excuse to challenge the
growing prosperity and independence enjoyed by Iraqi
Kurds in their Kurdistan autonomous region.
“If they invade or if there is any incursion, it
means war,” Mr Barzani said at his offices on the
outskirts of Erbil. “If they attack our people, our
interests, our territories then there will be no
limit because everything is subject to that
incursion.”
He urged Turkey to solve the problem through
dialogue, not guns. “If they take a peaceful
approach, then we are ready to help as much as we
can . . . The unfortunate thing is that they are not
allowing other . . . options. They insist on war as
being the only means to solve that problem.”
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Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
Turkish Army sources said that their troops had
killed 20 Kurdish PKK guerrillas yesterday in a
large operation involving 8,000 soldiers with air
support in the eastern province of Tunceli, 370
miles from the Iraqi border. Other reports put the
toll at 15.
Adding to the tension, a suicide car bomber killed
at least seven people in the northern Iraqi oil city
of Kirkuk. The city is due to have a referendum on
whether to become part of Kurdish-run northern Iraq,
further boosting the Kurds’ power base.
Ankara feels threatened by Kurdish fighters, who use
camps in Iraq’s mountainous Kurdish region for
attacks on Turkey. It has demanded the extradition
of PKK leaders – a request that Iraq says is
unrealistic – and is threatening an incursion.
Mr Barzani said that the problem of the PKK, which
began an armed campaign in 1984 to secure better
rights for Kurdish people living in Turkey, could
not be solved through violence.
“We are ready to cooperate with Turkey, provided
that Turkey will not only go for a military
solution,” he said, adding that he opposed the
build-up of 150,000 Turkish troops.
He also hinted that Turkey had another reason for
its tough stance on the PKK, which is not a new
problem. “I am about to be convinced that the PKK is
only an excuse,” he said. “The continuous, direct
threats of Turkey against the Kurdistan region and
its behaviour has created a doubt, leading us close
to the conviction that exactly this is the aim. The
Kurdistan region is the target, otherwise why should
we be involved in the fight between Turkey and the
PKK?”
A sharp rise in clashes between Turkish soldiers and
the outlawed group in recent weeks has left scores
dead, increasing pressure on Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
the Turkish Prime Minister, to take more action. The
PKK says it is holding eight soldiers prisoner.
The United States, Iraq and other countries have
been pressing Turkey to refrain from cross-border
military operations. A military campaign could
destabilise one of the few stable areas in Iraq and
leave the United States in an awkward position with
key allies: Turkey, a member of Nato, the Baghdad
Government and the self-governing Iraqi Kurdistan.
Mr Barzani said that talks with Washington and other
allies centred on the desire to avoid conflict,
although he acknowledged that the US-led coalition
had the overall responsibility of protecting Iraq
under a UN resolution. “To what extent they [the
United States] will stay committed to that is the
question, but we do not want to embarrass the
Americans,” he said. “We are not asking them for
military help, we are asking them to help so that we
defuse the tensions so that the war will not take
place.”
Mr Erdogan is due to meet President Bush on November
5 and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State,
is expected in Ankara on Thursday for talks with
Turkish officials.
Mr Barzani also expressed a strong desire to avoid a
return to a period of Kurdish tensions with Turkey,
Syria and Iran – countries where Kurds have settled
– and emphasised the need to recognise the rights of
millions of Kurds. “It is better for all of us to
sit down together, reach an understanding. We are
also a nation, we exist, we have a right to live,”
he said.
The President urged the PKK to honour the ceasefire
and to release the eight Turkish soldiers being
held.
“They should stay away from violence. They should
adopt a peaceful approach, a peaceful solution.”
timesonline co.uk
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