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Jordan urges Turkey to show restraint
22.10.2007
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October
22, 2007
AMMAN, Jordan, -- Jordan said on Monday it
was "deeply concerned" following the deadly clashes
between the Turkish army and Turkey's Kurdish PKK
separatists in near the border with Iraqi Kurdistan
region, and appealed for restraint.
"Jordan is deeply concerned about the situation in
that area and calls on all involved parties to avert
more violence and resolve this dangerous development
through dialogue," government spokesman Nasser Judeh
told a news conference.
"We are concerned about the security and stability
of Iraq and its neighbours."
The Turkish government has said 12 soldiers and 32
rebels were killed in heavy clashes near the
country's tense border with Iraqi Kurdistan region
on Sunday.
Turkey has been threatening to invade the autonomous
region of Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' to take military
action against Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
bases there.
Ankara says some 3,500 PKK fighters are based in
northern Iraq where they are able to obtain weapons
and are supported by Iraqi Kurdish leaders, a charge
the Iraqi Kurdistan administration strongly denies.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK took up arms fighting for self-rule in
Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
AFP
**
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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