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Iraqi Kurds reject 'orders' from Turkey 30.10.2007 |
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October
30, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Iraq's Kurdish leader dismissed the idea of taking
"orders" from Ankara to crack down on Turkish Kurd
rebel bases in his region as Turkey continued
Tuesday to pound positions near their border.
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional
government that holds sway in northern Iraq,
regretted Ankara's refusal to hold direct talks on
the crisis over the Turkey's separatist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.
"You do not speak to me, then you ask me to do
things against the PKK. How can this be?" he told
Turkey's Milliyet newspaper. "I am a friend of
Turkey but I am not taking orders from Turkey or
anyone else."
Turkey accuses Barzani's administration of
tolerating and even supporting the PKK, which uses
bases in northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks
across the border on Turkish territory.
The Turkish army has reportedly massed about 100,000
troops along the Iraqi border as Ankara threatens a
military incursion into Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'
after gaining parliamentary approval for such a move
earlier in the month.
Tensions along the frontier increased after October
21 when PKK rebels, who Turkey says sneaked from
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', ambushed a military unit
and killed 12 soldiers. Eight troops were captured.
The army has confirmed killing 65 rebels since then.
Although he was defiant on "taking orders" from
Ankara, Barzani urged the PKK to lay down arms and
called on Turkey to consider a political solution to
the Kurdish problem.
"The PKK will either give up violence or confront
not only Turkey but the whole Kurdish nation,"
Barzani said.
He suggesed that Ankara consider a general amnesty
for the rebels as part of political efforts to end
the 23-year PKK rebellion in southeast Turkey.
Barzani said he was worried that Turkey is using the
PKK as a pretext to undermine Kurdistan autonomy in
northern Iraq.
Ankara has long suspected the Iraqi Kurds of designs
to break away from Baghdad, a prospect that could
embolden the PKK campaign in Turkey, which has
already claimed more than 37,000 lives.
"We want assurances from Turkey that all these
military measures are not against us," Barzani said,
adding that he was working for the release of eight
Turkish soldiers the PKK says is holding captive.
The crisis will enter a crucial diplomatic stage on
Thursday when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
arrives in Ankara for talks with Turkish leaders.
She will then participate in a multilateral
conference on Iraq in Istanbul on Friday and
Saturday, which Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar
Zebari will also attend.
Washington, strongly opposed to Turkish military
action in Kurdistan ' northern Iraq', is stuck in an
awkward position between two key allies -- NATO
member Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds.
AFP
Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved self-rule in
part of the country. Today's teenagers are the first
generation to grow up under Kurdish rule. In the new
Iraqi Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan
region.
Kurdistan region has all the trappings of an
independent state -- its own constitution, its own
parliament, its own flag, its own army, its own
border, its own border patrol, its own national
anthem, its own education system, its own
International airports, even its own stamp inked
into the passports of visitors.
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