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Turkish general warns US over military
ties
15.10.2007 |
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October
15, 2007
ISTANBUL, Turkey,-- Turkey's top general
warned that ties with the U.S., already strained by
attacks from rebels hiding in Iraq, will be
irreversibly damaged if Congress passes a resolution
that labels the World War I-era killings of
Armenians a genocide.
Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for U.S. and
allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has
recalled its ambassador to Washington for
consultations and warned that there might be a cut
in the logistical support to the U.S. over the
issue.
Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told daily Milliyet newspaper
that a congressional committee's approval of the
measure had already harmed ties between the two
countries.
"If this resolution passed in the committee passes
the House as well, our military ties with the U.S.
will never be the same again," Buyukanit was quoted
as saying by Milliyet.
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Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit |
"I'm the military chief, I deal with security
issues. I'm not a politician," Buyukanit was quoted
as saying by Milliyet. "In this regard, the U.S.
shot its own foot."
About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq
goes through Turkey as does about one-third of the
fuel used by the U.S. military there. U.S. bases
also get water and other supplies carried in
overland by Turkish truckers who cross into Iraq's
northern Kurdistan autonomous region.
In addition, C-17 cargo planes fly military supplies
to U.S. soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from
Incirlik, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable
to bomb attacks. U.S. officials say the arrangement
helps reduce American casualties.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has "urged
restraint" from Turkey and sent two high-ranking
officials to Ankara in an apparent attempt to ease
fury over the measure which could be voted on by the
House by the end of the year.
Buyukanit's remarks were published a day after a
visit by Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for
European affairs, and Eric Edelman, who is the
undersecretary of defense for policy.
"Secretary of State Rice Condoleezza Rice asked us
before we came here to express that the Bush
administration is opposed to this resolution,"
Edelman said Saturday.
At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to
1.5 million Armenians by
Ottoman Turks. Many international
historians contend the World War I-era deaths
amounted to genocide, but Turkey says the mass
killings and deportations were not systematic and
that many Turkish Muslims died in the chaos of war.
The congressional resolution comes as the Turkish
parliament debates authorizing a military campaign
into northern Iraq to root out rebels who seek a
unified, independent nation for Kurds in the region.
U.S. officials have urged Turkey not to send troops
and appealed for a diplomatic solution with Iraq.
The Kurdish self-rule region in northern Iraq is one
of the country's few relatively stable areas and the
Kurds here are also a longtime U.S. ally.
A Kurdish rebel commander on Saturday said Turkey
would face a long and bloody conflict if it launched
a large-scale offensive in northern Iraq.
Speaking to The Associated Press deep in the Qandil
mountains straddling the Iraq-Turkish border, some
94 miles from the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of
Sulaimaniyah, Murat Karayilan, head of the armed
wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, warned
that an eventual Turkish incursion would "make
Turkey experience a Vietnam war."
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeast
Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed tens of
thousands of lives. Turkey says the rebels use Iraqi
Kurdish territory as a safe haven. Iraqi and
Kurdistani authorities reject the claim.
AP
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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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