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Istanbul meeting to deal with Iraq
re-building, not PKK
2.11.2007
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November 2, 2007
BAGHDAD,-- Advisors for Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday that the Istanbul
conference would focus on the re-building of Iraq,
the country's security and neighboring countries'
responsibilities to control their joint borders with
Iraq.
The issue of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) could
be possibly discussed on the sidelines of the
conference, they noted.
"The meeting is a chance for the donors and UN
Security Council permanent members to contribute to
backing the reconstruction of Iraq and enhance the
country's security issues with neighbors," Yassin
Majid, the media advisor for Maliki, said.
Majid, however, stressed the Iraqi government's
keenness on "solving the PKK issue by diplomatic
means and dialogue with the Turkish government
without the need to resort to the military
solution."
Sadeq al-Rakabi, Maliki's political advisor, said
the "Istanbul conference has nothing to do with the
PKK issue. "It is a conference of Iraq's neighboring
countries to be held in the presence of the
permanent members and the group of eight countries,"
he said.
Mahmoud Othman, the leading member in the Kurdistan
Coalition (KC), the second largest bloc in the Iraqi
parliament with 55 out of a total 275 seats, said
the Istanbul conference is going to be a failure if
it ever strayed from its objectives of Iraq
re-building and discussed the PKK.
Othman underlined the importance of "not allowing a
change in the conference objectives in the direction
sought by the Turkish government."
The crisis on the Iraqi Kurdistan-Turkish borders
unprecedentedly flared up during the past couple of
weeks after the turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party,
or PKK, which is outlawed in Turkey, escalated
operations against Turkish forces.
Fighters of the PKK, holed up in mountainous areas
in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', had killed, wounded
and captured more than 40 Turkish soldiers lately.
After the PKK escalations, the Turkish government
received the thumbs up from parliament to carry out
a military operation against the PKK inside Iraqi
Kurdistan region territories.
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.
www.ekurd.net
Fouad Hussein, the chief of staff for Iraqi
Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani, thinks that the
Turks are using the PKK as a pretext to attack the
Kurds. "The PKK is not the target. The target is
Kurdistan regional government," Hussein said.
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional
government that holds sway in northern Iraq,
regretted Ankara's refusal to hold direct talks on
the crisis over the Turkey's separatist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
VOI
**
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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