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Turkey open to diplomacy in Kurd crisis
with Iraq
19.10.2007
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October
19, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey said Thursday it would
pursue diplomacy to defuse a crisis over Turkey's
Kurdish PKK rebels in Kurdistan region 'northern
Iraq' as Baghdad made fresh appeals to dissuade its
neighbour from military action.
The Turkish parliament Wednesday approved a motion
authorizing military strikes for a one-year period
against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which
uses bases in border mountains in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq' for attacks on targets across the
border in Turkey.
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Ankara wants to
give diplomacy a chance, but insisted that it is
determined to fight "terrorism" -- a reference to
the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by
much of the international community.
An Istanbul meeting of the foreign ministers of
Iraq's neighbours set for November 2 will be "an
occasion to discuss all problems in Iraq, including
our problem with terrorism," Babacan said during a
visit to Cairo.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected
at the Istanbul meeting.
In Ankara, Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said he
would meet his US counterpart Robert Gates on Sunday
to discuss the tensions. The meeting will take place
in the sidelines of an international gathering in
Kiev, Anatolia news agency quoted Gonul as saying.
The Kurdish administration of Kurdistan region in
'northern Iraq', called for direct negotiations with
Turkey as thousands of Iraqi Kurds took to the
streets to protest against the Turkish threat.
Turkey says the rebels use Iraqi Kurdistan territory
as a safe haven. Iraqi and Kurdish authorities in
Kurdistan region strongly reject the claim.
The autonomous Kurdistan regional government said it
"welcomes direct dialogue with Ankara on all issues
of common interest or concern, including the PKK."
Officially, Turkey does not recognise the regional
government of Kurdistan led by president Massoud
Barzani. The Kurdistan regional government is
recognised by US, Iraq and in the new Iraqi
Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan region.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey. www.ekurd.net
"An incursion would be detrimental to all Iraq, to
Turkey and the Middle East," it said.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, speaking
in Washington, pressed Turkey to avoid military
action.
"It is a Turkish decision," he said, but Baghdad
hopes Ankara will choose "not to use the military
solution and refrain from crossing Iraqi borders."
Faced with mounting PKK attacks on Turkish targets,
Ankara says its patience has run out with what it
terms US and Iraqi inaction over the rebels.
Turkish criticism of the United States increased
after it recently emerged that US weapons given to
Iraq had ended up in PKK hands.
Wary of fresh turmoil in Iraq, Washington has urged
Turkish not to carry out any incursion.
But it has lost its leverage with Ankara because of
a pending US Congressional vote on a resolution
labelling the World War I Ottoman massacres of
Armenians as genocide.
Gonul said the PKK bases in Iraq and the
Congressional resolution will both be on the agenda
of his talks with Gates on Sunday.
Ankara has signalled it could bar the United States
from using the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey,
a key facility for transporting US cargo to Iraq and
Afghanistan, if the genocide bill is adopted.
Iraqi leaders on Wednesday asked Turkey for time to
act against the PKK, pointing at an accord the two
countries signed last month to tackle the rebels.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told his Turkish
counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the telephone
Wednesday that Baghdad "is absolutely determined" to
purge the PKK from northern Iraq.
It remains to be seen whether Maliki's embattled
government, which has virtually no authority over
the Kurdish-administered Kurdistani north, can
cajole the Iraqi Kurds into action against fellow
Kurds.
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. Turkey is home to estimate 25
million ethnic Kurds.
AFP | 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
** Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved self-rule
in part of the country. Today's teenagers are the
first generation to grow up under Kurdish rule. In
the new Iraqi Constitution, it is referred to as
Kurdistan region. Kurdistan region has all the
trappings of an independent state -- its own
constitution, its own parliament, its own flag, its
own army, its own border, its own border patrol, its
own national anthem, its own education system, its
own International airports, even its own stamp inked
into the passports of visitors.
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