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Turkey reassured on US support against PKK
rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan
6.11.2007
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November 6, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan left Washington reassured Tuesday
after President George W. Bush called Turkey's
Kurdish rebels in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' a
"common enemy" and promised greater help against
them.
A large-scale Turkish incursion into Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq' was now unlikely, said
analysts. But they saw tacit US approval for
surgical strikes on rebel targets across the border
in Bush's promise to provide Ankara with "real-time"
intelligence on Trkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
movements.
Bush also announced better communication channels
between the top echelons of the Turkish and US
military and the top US commander in Iraq, Gen.
David Petraeus.
Washington opposes unilateral Turkish action against
the PKK in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'. It fears a
possible confrontation between two allies --
NATO-member Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds who rule
Kurdistan region -- that could destabilise a
relatively peaceful part of Iraq.
"We understood each other well and agreed on the
basic issues," Erdogan said Monday after his meeting
with Bush, widely seen as the culmination of frantic
US efforts to avert the threat of a Turkish
incursion into northern Iraq.
He welcomed Bush's promises, but said Ankara had no
plans to withdraw some 100,000 troops massed along
the Iraqi Kurdistan region border.
"Turkey will defend itself against terrorism in the
absence of international cooperation," he insisted.
Erdogan also appeared to take a softer line towards
the Iraqi Kurdish leadership. Ankara has accused of
harbouring and aiding the separatist PKK, which uses
northern Iraq as a springboard for cross-border
attacks, Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan region
strongly reject the claim.
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
Iraq pledged at the weekend that the Baghdad
government and the regional Kurdish administration
in the north would both enhance measures to curb the
PKK.
"We have to trust them at the moment. We will see
(their commitment) in time as we take (further)
steps" against the rebels, Erdogan said.
Tensions on the Iraqi Kurdistan border increased
after October 21 when PKK rebels Turkey says came
from northern Iraq ambushed a military unit, killing
12 soldiers and capturing eight others. The captives
were released Sunday.
The White House talks diminished the prospect of an
imminent Turkish incursion into Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq', veteran journalist Hasan Cemal commented.
"The two sides will be working together and action
(against the PKK) will be spread over time," he
said.
"There could be surgical strikes" on rebel targets
across the border, he added.
Bush's assurances will help heal Turkish frustration
with the little help the United States has provided
so far against the PKK, said another analyst, Cengiz
Candar.
"A sturdy rope now binds Turkey and the United
States," Candar said. "At the same time, the United
States has strongly committed itself to the struggle
against the PKK."
Other analysts disagreed that Turkey would
coordinate all its action with the United States.
"Ankara seems poised for some serious steps -- some
of them with Washington's support and approval, but
also some without Washington's knowledge and even in
defiance of it," Rusen Cakir, an expert on the
Kurdish question, wrote in the daily Vatan.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara, US
and EU, Over 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Turkey rejects direct talks with the official Iraqi
Kurdistan government on the crisis over the Turkey's
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels,
officially, Turkey does not recognise the regional
government of Kurdistan led by president Massoud
Barzani. 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.
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.
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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