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Kirkuk: Hundreds of Kurds protest against
Turkey's incursion plan
22.10.2007
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October
22, 2007
Kirkuk, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
-- Hundreds of Kurdish protesters took to the
streets of the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Kirkuk
Monday to protest a threatened Turkish incursion to
root out Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels from the
mountains near the border between Iraq's Kurdistan
region and Turkey.
"We are ready to defend our beloved Kurdistan that
is targeted by the Turkish regime," said Najat Hasan
Ali, a political activist in the crowd.
Hundreds of mostly Kurdish demonstrators holding
banners in Arabic, Kurdish and English, rallied in
the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk against the
Turkish threat, shouting "No, No Turkey! No, No to
aggression!".
Another protestor standing near her carried a banner
which read: "Stop, Stop Turkey!".
Tensions rose further as the Turkish military
confirmed eight soldiers were missing after Sunday's
clash with Kurdish rebels in which 12 other soldiers
were killed.
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Iraqi Kurds wave their regional flag during a
demonstration against the Turkish military threat in
the oil rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk |
The military said 34 rebels were killed in an
offensive launched in retaliation for the attack,
which has pushed Turkey closer to possible
cross-border action into Kurdistan region 'northern
Iraq' to target the guerrillas.
Iraqi Kurds says, the PKK problem is an "internal
Turkish problem,"
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 | AFP
* Kirkuk city is a
Kurdish city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be
held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
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