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NATO urges restraint from Turkey over
Iraqi Kurdistan
17.10.2007 |
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October
17, 2007
BRUSSELS, -- NATO Secretary General Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer called Turkish President Abdullah Gul
to urge restraint before a parliament vote due to
give troops the green light to enter Kurdistan
region in northern Iraq to crush Kurdish PKK
separatist rebels.
"He expressed his view that all parties should
exercise the greatest possible restraint,
particularly in this time of great tension," NATO
spokesman James Appathurai told a regular news
briefing on Wednesday.
Ankara says NATO allies have not done enough to help
it deal with rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) after a series of deadly
cross-border attacks on Turkish troops.
The NATO chief expressed to Gul his condolences for
the Turkish losses and acknowledged the strain the
violence was putting on Turkish society, Appathurai
said of the telephone call late on Tuesday.
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NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer |
He added that NATO viewed the PKK as a 'terrorist'
group. But he said Ankara had not made any request
for the alliance to invoke a clause in its treaty
calling on nations to come to the aid of an ally
under attack, nor had it requested military help.
"None of this has been requested by the Turkish
authorities," he said, noting that NATO allies
individually continued to provide Turkey with
intelligence.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki telephoned his Turkish
counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday to
reiterate his commitment to stopping Kurdish rebels
from using Iraq as a launchpad for attacks, state
television said.
The call came shortly before Turkey's parliament was
due to meet to approve cross-border operations to
hunt down PKK rebels hiding out in the mountainous
of Kurdistan region in north of Iraq.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
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'.
www.ekurd.net
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.
Reuters | Agencies
** 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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