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Rice arrives in Turkey for talks on
Kurdish crisis
2.11.2007
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November 2, 2007
ANKARA,-- US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice arrived in Turkey on Friday, offering an
"effective strategy" against Turkey's Kurdish PKK
rebels in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' in exchange for
Ankara holding off on its threat of cross-border
military action.
Heavy security was in place at Ankara's Esenboga
airport, with snipers positioned at the complex and
sniffer dogs searching for explosives.
"Anything that would destabilise the north of Iraq
is not going to be in Turkey's interest," Rice said
during a stopover in Ireland on the way to Ankara.
"It is not going to be in our interest. It is not
going to be in Iraq's interest," she said.
"We want to develop a very effective strategy for
dealing with this threat," Rice said. "But we are
not going to be able to do this without coordination
of the three."
Describing the northern Iraq-based Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) as a "common enemy" of the
United States, Iraq and Turkey, Rice said all three
must work together to effectively combat the rebels.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey,
the United States and the European Union.
Rice said a three-party panel she set up more than a
year ago to coordinate action against the rebels had
been "enhanced", implicitly acknowledging that it
had been ineffective.
Her offer may not win over Ankara, which has lost
faith in the tripartite process and says it want to
see concrete steps against the PKK.
"We will not make the same mistake. We are against
trying over and over again mechanisms that have
already been tried and have failed," Babacan told a
press conference here Thursday.
Rice's visit comes at a sensitive time, with the
Turkish government under mounting public pressure to
act against the PKK. |
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, is
seen with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan before their meeting in Ankara, Turkey,
Friday, Nov. 2, 2007
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, second
from right, accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
Ross Wilson, right, meets with Turkey's Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, Foreign
Minister Ali Babacan, second from left, and Turkish
member of parliament and foreign policy adviser to
the Prime Minister, Egemen Bagis, left, in Ankara,
Turkey, Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 |
Ankara says some 3,500
Turkey's PKK rebels are based in the autonomous
Kurdistan region 'north of Iraq', from where they
launch cross-border attacks as part of their 23-year
separatist campaign in southeast Turkey.
Ankara has massed an estimated 100,000 troops on the
border and threatened a military incursion unless
Baghdad and Washington make good on promises to
crack down on the rebels.
Both the United States and Iraq have called on
Turkey for restraint.
Rice will meet Turkish President Abdullah Gul,
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who in turn is scheduled to
meet US President George W. Bush in Washington on
Monday.
She will then fly to Istanbul for talks with Iraqi
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ahead of a ministerial
conference on Iraqi security of Iraq's neighbours
and major Western powers Friday evening and Saturday
in Istanbul.
There were minor demonstrations against Rice's visit
in Ankara and Istanbul on Thursday and a small
percussion bomb went off overnight in front of a
US-based cargo company in Istanbul, the Anatolia
news agency reported.
Putting on the pressure ahead of Rice's arrival,
Turkey on Thursday announced economic sanctions on
the Kurdistan autonomous government of northern
Iraq, which it accuses of harbouring and aiding the
rebels -- a charge Iraqi Kurdish leaders deny.
Massud Barzani, the
president of Iraqi Kurdistan government, confirmed
that Turkey had for several days
closed its airspace
to planes bound for his region.
Rice said she had asked Barzani in a telephone
conversation last week to distance himself from the
PKK.
"I made the very clear point that the KRG (Kurdish
Regional Government) needs to separate itself from
the PKK in a very clear rhetorical way and he
assured me that they have no intention of harboring
the PKK, no intention of trying to do anything but
rule out terrorism in North Iraq," she said.
Tensions between Iraq and Turkey rose after October
21 when PKK rebels Ankara says infiltrated from
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' ambushed a military unit,
killing 12 soldiers and capturing eight.
The army says it has since killed 80 rebels on
Turkish territory.
AFP
**
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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