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Iraq's Kurdistan bans media from going to
PKK bases
19.11.2007
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November 19, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Iraq's northern Kurdistan region have banned
journalists from travelling to Turkey's Kurdish PKK
rebel bases, officials said on Monday, accusing the
media of aggravating the crisis with Turkey.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesman Jamal
Abdullah said the semi-autonomous KRG would stop
journalists going to Iraq's northern border and
interviewing Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels
who have launched attacks against Turkish soldiers.
"We will not allow journalists or the media to send
any reporter ... to where the PKK are, whether on
the border or the area of Qandil mountains,"
Abdullah said.
He said media reports had led to an "acceleration of
the crisis with Turkey". "We will try in different
ways to calm the situation," he said.
Turkey has massed 100,000 troops backed by tanks,
artillery and planes on Iraq's Kurdistan border and
threatened to launch a major military operation to
crush PKK fighters.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said last
week that a limited invasion appeared inevitable.
Abdullah denied accusations from media watchdog, the
Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, that
Kurdish security forces had detained several
journalists.
The Iraqi non-governmental organisation said a team
working for al-Hurra television, including
correspondent Ali al-Yasi, was detained in the Zakho
area near the Turkish border.
It said a Japanese television reporter had also been
detained in the Bativa border area but did provide
any more details.
Journalists have flocked to Iraq's Kurdistan border
as tensions have grown over attacks on Turkish
soldiers by PKK rebels operating from Iraq's
Kurdistan mountainous north.
The KRG has taken steps to block supplies to the
rebels, but Ankara is pressing Iraq to do more.
The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said in a
statement that it rejected "random decisions" by the
Kurdish government, adding that authorities had been
"harassing" journalists and hindering their work. www.ekurd.net
The Iraqi Association of Defence of Journalists'
Rights, another non-governmental organization, said
an order preventing journalists from going to border
regions had been issued by the Kurdistan president's
office on November 14.
Abdullah said no such order had been issued.
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. www.ekurd.net
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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