|
US warns of disaster if Turks attack Iraqi
Kurdistan
15.10.2007 |
|
|
|
October
15, 2007
Ankara, Turkey, -- American officials have
begun an intense lobbying effort to defuse Turkish
threats to launch a military attack on Kurdish PKK
rebels in the border montains of Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq'.
Turkey is also threatening to limit access to
critical air and land routes that have become a
lifeline for US troops in Iraq.
But even as the US Assistant Secretary of State for
European affairs, Daniel Fried, appealed for
restraint in Ankara on Saturday, the Turkish Prime
Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a political rally
in Istanbul, urged the parliament to vote
unanimously this week to "declare a mobilisation"
against Kurdish rebels and their "terrorist
organisation", the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
US military officials predict disastrous
consequences if Turkey strikes at northern Iraqi
Kurdistan and serious repercussions for the safety
of US troops if Turkey reduces the supply lines it
permits.
The confluence of two seemingly unrelated events
could not have come at a worse time. The bodies of
13 Turkish soldiers killed on October 7 in one of
the deadliest attacks by Kurdish separatists had
barely been buried amid emotional media coverage
when the House Foreign Affairs Committee in
Washington approved a resolution to label as
genocide the mass killings of Armenians during the
final decades of the Ottoman Empire.
"This is not only about a resolution," said Egemen
Bagis, a member of the Turkish parliament and a
foreign policy adviser to Erdogan. "We're fed up
with the PKK - it is a clear and present danger for
us. This insult over the genocide claims is the last
straw."
Domestic politics in both countries - the Armenian
lobby that pushed for the genocide resolution in
Congress and growing pressure on the Turkish
leadership to stop Kurdish rebel attacks - collided
to create an international crisis.
"It's a difficult time for the relationship," the US
Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, told reporters
on Saturday during her trip to Russia, noting Mr
Fried and another State Department official had gone
to Turkey to reassure the Turks "that we really
value this relationship".
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
washingtonpost com
**
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)
wikipedia
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 