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Turkish helicopters hit Iraqi Kurdistan
villages
13.11.2007
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November 13, 2007
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',--
Turkish military helicopters bombed villages in
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', two Turkish
television channels reported on Tuesday.
Turkish helicopter gunships attacked villages
inside Iraqi Kurdistan on Tuesday, Iraqi officials
said.
Col. Hussein Tamir, an Iraqi Army officer who
supervises border guards, said the airstrikes
occurred before dawn on abandoned villages near
Zakhu, an Iraqi Kurdish town near the border with
Turkey. There were no casualties, he said.
"These are only abandoned villages ... and the PKK
has no outposts there," Tamir told The Associated
Press by phone from Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan
region 'Iraq'.
A spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK,
corroborated Tamir's account. He spoke on condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak
to media. www.ekurd.net
It was the first Turkish airstrike inside Iraq since
border tensions escalated in recent months, and the
first major Turkish action against Turkey's Kurdish
rebels since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan met U.S. President George W. Bush in
Washington earlier this month.
CNN Turk television, quoting Iraqi officials, said
the villages were empty and no one was killed.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along its
border with Iraqi Kurdistan for a possible
incursion to crush rebels of the Turkey's outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). It claims the right
of self-defence under international law to attack
the PKK inside Iraqi Kurdistan territory.
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.
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.
Turkey rejects direct talks with Iraqi Kurdistan
government, Officially, Turkey does not recognise
the regional government of Kurdistan led by
president Massoud Barzani. 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.
The United States and Iraq have pressured Turkey to
avoid a large-scale attack on PKK bases in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq', fearing such an operation would
destabilize what has been the calmest region in the
country.
U.S. authorities have agreed, however, to share
intelligence about positions of Kurdish rebels with
Turkey, possibly enabling the Turkish military to
carry out limited assaults.
Reuters | AP
**
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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