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Bush: US, Turkey will cooperate against
Kurdish PKK rebels
1.11.2007
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November 1, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- US President George W. Bush
said Thursday that he and Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan would use a White House meeting
next week to discuss cooperation against Iraq-based
Turkey's Kurdish PKK fighters.
"I look forward to visiting with Prime Minister
Erdogan on this important subject as to how we can
work together to prevent people from coming out of
mountain ranges to do harm to Turkish troops," he
told reporters.
The two leaders will meet Monday amid rising
tensions between Washington and Ankara over strikes
in Turkey by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters
based in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
Erdogan has warned that relations between the two
NATO allies hinge on whether Bush agrees to take
"concrete, urgent steps" against the PKK, branded a
terrorist group by Europe and the United States.
The White House has urged Turkey not to launch a
large-scale incursion into Iraq while backing
limited efforts to counter the PKK and saying that
US forces can provide "actionable intelligence" to
their Turkish counterparts.
"We will have a good, substantive discussion, as you
would expect allies to do. And I'm looking forward
to seeing him here in the Oval Office," Bush told
reporters.
Over 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
Turkey's 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.
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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