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Security accord best way to confront PKK,
Iraq tells Turkey
9.10.2007 |
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October
9, 2007
BAGHDAD, Oct 9, -- Iraq's government said on
Tuesday a security accord signed with Turkey late
last month was the best way to deal with attacks by
Kurdish rebels in Turkey.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan gave the green
light on Tuesday for a possible military incursion
into Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' to crush
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels hiding there
after a series of deadly attacks on Turkish security
forces.
"The security agreement signed between Turkey and
Iraq is the framework through which the security of
the two countries can be preserved," Iraqi
government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
Turkey and Iraq signed an anti-terrorism deal on
Sept. 28 aimed against PKK rebels based in northern
Iraq but failed to agree on a plan that would have
let Turkish troops chase militants across their
common border.
Dabbagh condemned the latest PKK attack on Sunday,
in which 13 Turkish soldiers were killed near the
Iraqi border.
"The government expresses its condolences and
sympathies to the Turkish people and restates that
regional cooperation is a given to face all these
terrorist groups," he said.
The government of Iraq's largely autonomous northern
Kurdistan region said in a statement its region
should not be used by any group as a launchpad for
attacks on neighbouring countries.
But the Kurdish government has done little to rein
in the PKK, whose bases are in inaccessible
mountainous areas along the border with Turkey.
Under the security accord signed last month, Iraq
and Turkey pledged to take all necessary measures,
including financial and intelligence, to combat the
PKK and other militant groups. They will hold
six-monthly meetings to coordinate their work.
Iraq has said its own security forces are too
stretched tackling insurgents elsewhere in the
country to be sent to the mountains in the north
where the PKK rebels are based.
Reuters
**
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)
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