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Turkey: Iraqi Kurdistan incursion would
not be 'invasion'
1.11.2007
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November 1, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey's foreign minister said
Thursday that any incursion by Turkish forces into
Iraqi Kurdistan would target Turkey's Kurdish PKK
guerrilla fighters and would not be an invasion.
Ali Babacan said a meeting Monday between Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Bush
"will determine the steps that Turkey would take."
If Turkey decides to send its troops into Iraq, "any
cross-border attack would be aimed at hitting
terrorist bases and would not be an invasion," he
said.
He once again accused the government of the
semiautonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq
inaction against the rebels staging attacks on
Turkey. |
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan |
"We have doubts about
the sincerity of the administration in northern Iraq
in the struggle against the terrorist organization,"
Babacan said. "We want to see solid steps — we hope
our point of contacts understand the seriousness of
this job."
Babacan said some economic measures aimed at the
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq' have been put in place, and Turkey
is considering stopping flights to the region.
Some commercial flights between Turkey and Iraqi
Kurdistan already have been canceled, according to
some reports, and some Turkish companies are scaling
back or delaying investment plans there.
Iraq's Kurdistan region relies heavy on Turkish
investment, imports and power supplies. Turkish
electricity accounts for 10 percent of its power
use.
It is not clear, however, what impact economic
sanctions would have on the PKK, a guerrilla group
operating out of remote mountain bases with little
reliance on conventional supply routes.
"We have all kinds of options on the table against
the PKK right now," Babacan said.
Erdogan contradicted Babacan, telling the state-run
Anatolya news agency that economic measures were not
yet being implemented.
"There's nothing right now," he was quoted as
saying, also adding that when they were implemented,
it would be announced.
Both said any economic measures put in place would
be targeted specifically at the rebel fighters.
"We would not want to hurt either the Iraqi people
or the people living in Turkey with these economic
measures," Babacan said.
Erdogan added, however, that while "our main target
is the terrorist organization and the areas where
the PKK is based, those aiding and abetting the
terrorist organization would be evaluated as same
and have sanctions imposed against them."
Hit-and-run raids by the rebels and other fighting
have left 35 Turkish soldiers on the Turkish side
since Sept. 29. The skirmishes were the latest in a
conflict that dates back to 1984 and has seen nearly
40,000 people killed, since 1984 the PKK took up
arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey. www.ekurd.net
It is widely worried that a Turkish cross-border
campaign would spread disorder in one of the few
relatively stable areas in Iraq. A Turkish incursion
would also put the United States in an awkward
position with key allies: NATO-member Turkey, the
Baghdad government and the self-governing Iraqi
Kurds in the north.
Washington has been pressing Turkey for restraint,
while pushing for more action by Iraqi Kurds to
crack down on Turkey's PKK rebel bases.
"We, of course, would not want Turkey to launch its
own military operations across the border because
obviously there are troubles enough in Iraq," U.S.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told
reporters in Vienna, Austria on Thursday. "We would
like to see that prevented but it is absolutely
imperative that steps be taken to prevent such PKK
attacks in the future."
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.
Barzani said he was worried that Turkey is using the
PKK as a pretext to undermine Kurdistan autonomy in
northern Iraq.
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.
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
"PKK members are present in the Kurdistan region but
the regional government is preventing them from
carrying out any attacks against Turkish targets,"
senior Kurdish politician Mahmud Othman said last
week.
AP | Agencies
**
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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