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No plans for further Turkey-Iraq talks
over PKK rebels
27.10.2007
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October
27, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkish and Iraqi officials said
on Saturday there were no plans for further talks
between Turkey and an Iraqi delegation visiting
Ankara to seek an agreement on cracking down on
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels based in Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq'.
Turkey
rejected a
series of proposals on Friday evening offered by a
high-level Iraqi delegation, led by Defence Minister
General Abdel Qader Jassim, as insufficient and
taking too long to take effect.
The delegation was in Ankara to try to avert a
possible major cross-border operation by Turkey
against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas.
The officials, who declined to be named, told
Reuters the Iraqi delegation, which included U.S.
military and Iraqi Kurdistan regional government
officials, would leave Turkey around midday.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops on the
frontier before a possible cross-border operation
against about 3,000 PKK guerrillas.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said
Turkey will not tolerate any more PKK attacks from
Iraq and has called for immediate steps by U.S. and
Iraqi authorities in order to avert a military
operation.
A senior Turkish diplomat, who declined to be named,
told Reuters late on Friday the Iraqi delegation had
offered proposals that included cutting logistical
support to the PKK, limiting their movements and
closing offices linked to them.
Ankara wants PKK guerrillas, including their
leaders, handed over and for their camps in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' to be shut down. Iraq says
it has no control over the separatist fighters.
The Iraqi-Turkish talks came ahead of U.S. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Ankara on Nov.
2 to discuss the crisis and before a regional
conference in Istanbul on Nov. 2-3, where foreign
ministers will discuss Iraq.
Ankara has never, and still does not, recognize the
Iraqi Kurdistan regional government (KRG) and
refuses to meet with its representatives in any
official capacity. That reflects Ankara's fear that
any international respect shown to the autonomous
Iraqi Kurdistan region would only embolden Turkey's
own Kurdish minority to seek similar home-rule
status.
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'. Turkey fears
this could fan separatism among its own large
Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
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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