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Turkey says military option against PKK
remains on the table
4.11.2007
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November 4, 2007
ISTANBUL, -- Military options "remain on the
table" in the crisis over Turkey's Kurdish PKK
rebels based in Kurdistan ' northern Iraq', Turkish
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Saturday after
Iraq announced new steps to curb the separatists.
"There are various methods in the struggle against
terrorism -- political dialogue, diplomacy... and
military instruments," Babacan told a joint press
conference with Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari.
"All instruments remain on the table for Turkey," he
said. "Whether they will be used or not, or when
they will be used, is a matter of strategy."
A senior Turkish government official said Ankara
"does not see any new element" in the measures that
Iraq said it enacted Saturday against the Turkey's
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK
uses bases in 'northern Iraq' for attacks on Turkish
targets across the border.
Senior Kurdish politician Mahmud Othman said earlier
"PKK members are present in the Kurdistan region but
the regional government is preventing them from
carrying out any attacks against Turkish targets,"
"The parties maintain their positions," the official
added, referring to Turkey, Iraq and the United
States.
Wary of fresh turmoil in Iraq, Washington is opposed
to Turkish unilateral action in a relatively
peaceful region of the war-ravaged country.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held
three-way talks earlier with Babacan and Zebari on
the sidelines of a multinational conference on Iraq
in Istanbul, seeking to avert the threat of a
Turkish incursion.
Iraqi officials said Saturday they were setting up
new checkpoints in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' to try
to restrict the movement of PKK rebels and cut their
logistical supplies.
The Iraqi Kurdish authorities, accused by Ankara of
harbouring and even aiding the PKK, began to shut
down the offices of a PKK-linked political party.
Iraqi and Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan region
strongly reject the claim of aiding Turkey's PKK
rebels.
Ankara wants the Iraqi authorities to urgently crack
down on and close PKK camps in the mountains of
northern Iraq and arrest and extradite the group's
leaders. Iraqi Kurdistan forces chief Brig. Gen.
Jabbar Yawar, said "Turkey wants imaginary and
impossible demands. They want us to kill all PKK for
them while they themselves cannot do that," he said.
But Zebari, himself a Kurd, insisted that "it was
difficult indeed" to capture the PKK leaders.
"Those people are armed and up in the mountains," he
said. But he added that the Iraqi authorities would
issue "a look-out list for people wanted by the
Turkish government."
He stressed that the measures envisaged by Iraq
would help restore confidence between Baghdad and
Ankara and might pave the way for joint military
action against the PKK in the future.
"I would not discount anything in the future but
that depends on first agreeing on this jointly... We
need to restore the confidence that has been shaken
between us in order to be able to work together," he
said.
"At the moment we are talking about some achievable
measures to enhance confidence between us and
Turkey.
"There will be actions taken by the Iraqi government
and the regional authorities" in northern Iraq, he
said.
The Iraqis are "very serious on cooperating and
giving active support" in combatting the PKK, he
said.
Iraqi Kurds says, the PKK problem is an "internal
Turkish problem,"
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. Turkey is
home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
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.
www.ekurd.net
In Turkey, the term Kurdistan is a
politically-charged reference to Kurdish-majority
areas in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.
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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