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Turkey to approve troops to Iraqi
Kurdistan
17.10.2007
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October
17, 2007
Ankara, -- Turkey will defy international
pressure on Wednesday and grant its troops
permission to enter Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'
to crush Kurdish PKK rebels based there, though it
has played down expectations of any imminent attack.
Washington, Ankara's NATO ally, says it understands
Turkey's desire to tackle rebels of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but fears a major
incursion would wreck stability in the most peaceful
part of Iraq and potentially in the wider region.
Turkey's stance has helped drive global oil prices
to $88 (43.3 pounds) a barrel, a new record, and has
hit the lira currency as investors weigh the
economic risks of any major military operation.
Parliamentary approval would create the legal basis
for military action, essentially giving the army a
free hand to act as and when it sees fit.
By law, Turkey's parliament must approve the
deployment of Turkish troops abroad. Parliament is
expected to approve the request from Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet by a large majority
following an open debate.
"Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate
incursion will follow, but we will act at the right
time and under the right conditions," Erdogan told
his ruling AK Party on Tuesday.
www.ekurd.net
"This is about self-defence," he said in televised
remarks.
Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi lobbied
Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul in Ankara on
Tuesday to refrain from military action and to seek
a diplomatic solution.
Erdogan is under heavy public pressure to hit the
PKK camps in northern Iraq after a series of deadly
rebel attacks on Turkish troops.
APPEALS UNHEEDED
Washington and Baghdad have so far failed to take
action against the estimated 3,000 PKK guerrillas
hiding in northern Iraq, despite repeated Turkish
appeals over a number of years.
Ankara knows Baghdad has little clout in Iraq's
autonomous Kurdistan region in the north,
whose leaders have consistently refused to take up
arms against their ethnic kin in the PKK.
Washington's own forces are sorely stretched in
central and southern Iraq.
Brent Scowcroft, a former U.S. National Security
Council adviser, visiting Ankara on Tuesday, said
Washington should have done more to address Turkish
concerns about the PKK.
"We have taken some steps but they have been very
inadequate and we are trying to improve cooperation
between Iraq and Turkey on dealing with that," he
told Reuters.
He said that any Turkish incursion into northern
Iraq was likely to destabilise the area and
complicate an already complex situation there.
"But also the Turks are an ally and they are
suffering from PKK activities across the border, so
it's a balancing act," he added.
Turkish opposition parties strongly back the plan
for military action, with only the small pro-Kurdish
Democratic Society Party (DTP) expressing concern
about the implications.
"Military methods alone cannot bring a solution,"
DTP leader Ahmet Turk said.
Many Turks regard the DTP as a mouthpiece for the
PKK, which Ankara blames for the deaths of more than
37,000 people since the group launched its armed
struggle for an ethnic homeland in the mainly
Kurdish southeast Turkey in 1984.
Turkey conducted large military operations in
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' against the PKK in
the 1990s but failed to wipe out the rebels. Iraqi
Kurds says previously we saw the Turkish army
invading the region under the pretext of chasing the
PKK and this army did nothing.
Some analysts say that despite its tough rhetoric
Turkey may limit itself to aerial bombardment of
rebel targets and small forays across the border
while avoiding a major incursion.
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 estemate 25 million ethnic Kurds.
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)
wikipedia
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