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Iraqi parliament speaker heads for Erbil
to meet Kurdistan president
7.11.2007
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November
7, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Speaker of the Iraqi parliament
Mahmoud al-Mashhadani headed to Iraq's Kurdistan
region on Wednesday, leading a parliamentary
delegation, to meet Kurdistan President Massoud
Barzani on the Iraqi-Turkish crisis.
"A number of MPs from different blocs are
accompanying al-Mashhadani in his visit to Erbil," a
media source in the parliament said.
A Kurdish parliamentary delegation, headed by
Speaker Adnan Mufti, paid a visit to Baghdad last
Wednesday to discuss the issue of the Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish
threats to invade Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
The crisis on the Iraqi Kurdistan-Turkish borders
unprecedentedly flared up during the past couple of
weeks after the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which is outlawed in Turkey, escalated operations
against Turkish forces.
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Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' (R) Mahmoud al-Mashhadani
the speaker of Iraq's parliament |
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, massing about 100,000
troops on the joint borders with Iraqi Kurdistan.
Since 1984 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.
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.
www.ekurd.net
Turkey has never, and still does not, recognize the
Kurdistan region 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
large Kurdish minority to seek similar home-rule
status.
www.ekurd.net
In Turkey, the term Kurdistan is a
politically-charged reference to Kurdish-majority
areas in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.
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 source said that the two speaker's deputies:
Khaled al-Attiya and Aaref Tifour may head later in
the day to the Czech capital Prague to discuss means
of boosting parliamentary cooperation as well as
activating agreements signed between the two sides.
VOI
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