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Turkey sanctions target Iraq's autonomous
Kurdistan
1.11.2007
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Erdogan to Barzani: Tolerating the PKK have a cost
November 1, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey announced a blitz of
sanctions targeting Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels on
Wednesday in a move expected to affect members of
Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan administration.
The move came after Turkey said it had killed
another 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border
and the United States revealed it was providing
Ankara with intelligence on the rebels holed up in
northern Iraq.
Turkish vice prime minister and government spokesman
Cemil Cicek said the cabinet had adopted
"simultaneous military, political, diplomatic and
economic measures" targeting the Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) and "its associates."
He declined to give more detail about the sanctions,
but defined associates as "those who help it (the
PKK) and who shield it."
Ankara accuses the Iraqi Kurdistan administration of
harbouring the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
and has been threatening an invasion of Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq' to pursue the separatists.
Iraqi Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan region
strongly reject the claim.
On Wednesday, the Turkish military reported new
fighting in an area bordering Iraq, the Cudi
mountains of Sirnak province, in which 15
separatists and three soldiers have been killed
since Monday.
Troops were also chasing rebels in the east of the
country and a southern area near the border with
Syria after skirmishes a day earlier, the military
said.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along its
border with Iraq, according to media reports,
threatening an invasion that the US and other allies
are eager to avert.
In Washington, the Pentagon said that it was giving
Ankara "more and more" intelligence on PKK positions
along the border with Iraqi Kurdistan.
"The key for any sort of any military response, by
the Turks or anybody else, is actionable
intelligence," a Pentagon press secretary, Geoff
Morrell, told reporters. "And we are making efforts
to help them get actionable intelligence."
According to earlier press reports, the sanctions
approved on Wednesday could include restricting
trade to Iraq and cutting off electricity supplies
to the north of the country.
Iraq is a lucrative market for Turkey and one of the
few countries with which Ankara has a trade surplus.
Turkish exports to Iraq totalled 1.7 billion dollars
(1.2 billion euros) in the first eight months of
this year and 2.5 billion dollars for 2006,
according to official figures.
On Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan had warned Massuod Barzani, the president of
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', that tolerating
the PKK could have a cost.
"What they (Barzani and his followers) are doing
there is quite simply harbouring a terrorist
organisation," Erdogan said during a reception for
Turkey's national day.
"If terrorist organisations encroach on Turkish
territory we will use all means available to us
under international law," he added.
Turkey rejects direct talks with Iraqi Kurdistan
government, Officially, Turkey does not recognise
the regional government of Kurdistan led by
president Massoud Barzani.
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.
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.
The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Kurdistan
region 'Iraq', Dr Kamal Kirkuki, has
alleged that Turkey's threats to attack
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels in Iraq's Kurdistan region
in northern region were motivated by an
unspoken
fear of the democracy developing beyond its southern
border. www.ekurd.net
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey. Turkey
is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
Tensions at the Turkish-Iraqi border increased after
October 21 when PKK rebels, who Turkey says
infiltrated from northern Iraq, ambushed a military
unit, killing 12 soldiers and capturing eight.
The army says it has since killed 80 rebels on
Turkish territory, including those announced
Wednesday.
Turkey's threat of a cross-border operation is
expected to dominate Erdogan's talks with Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice in Ankara on Friday and
with President George W. Bush at the White House on
November 5.
A ministerial meeting of Iraq's neighbours in
Istanbul Saturday, which Rice and UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon will also attend, is also likely
to be overshadowed by the tension between Ankara and
Baghdad.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appealed to Iran
Wednesday to help defuse the crisis with Turkey,
while Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the
Istanbul conference must deal with Iraq's internal
security rather than the row over PKK rebels.
AFP
Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved self-rule in
part of the country. Today's teenagers are the first
generation to grow up under Kurdish rule. In the new
Iraqi Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan
region.
Kurdistan region has all the trappings of an
independent state -- its own constitution, its own
parliament, its own flag, its own army, its own
border, its own border patrol, its own national
anthem, its own education system, its own
International airports, even its own stamp inked
into the passports of visitors.
**
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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