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Turkey retains military option after US
pledges support against PKK
6.11.2007
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November 6, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey stressed Tuesday that
it retained the option of military action against
Turkey's Kurdish rebels in Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq', a day after the United States promised to
help its NATO ally combat the separatists.
Turkey "preserves its determination to take
political, diplomatic and military steps as part of
the authorisation it was given by parliament in the
struggle against PKK bases," a government statement
said.
Analysts played down the prospect of a large-scale
Turkish incursion, but said President George W.
Bush's pledges of support pointed at tacit US
approval for limited strikes on rebel targets across
the border.
Bush, who met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan at the White House on Monday, called the
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) a common
enemy and promised to provide Ankara with
"real-time" intelligence on rebel movements.
He also announced new communications channels
between the top echelons of the Turkish and US
military and the top US commander in Iraq, General
David Petraeus.
Ankara said the two leaders agreed "on taking urgent
steps" to combat the PKK, including
intelligence-sharing.
Washington opposes unilateral Turkish action against
the PKK in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', fearing
an eventual confrontation between two key allies --
NATO-member Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds who rule the
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.
He welcomed Bush's pledges but said Ankara has no
plans to withdraw some 100,000 troops it has massed
along the Iraqi Kurdistan border.
"Turkey will defend itself against terrorism in the
absence of international cooperation," he insisted.
Erdogan appeared to take a softer line towards the
Iraqi Kurdish leadership that Ankara accuses of
harbouring and aiding the PKK, which uses Kurdistan
'northern Iraq' as a springboard for cross-border
attacks. Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan region
strongly reject the claim of aiding Turke's PKK
rebels. 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
rebels.
"We have to trust them for the moment. We will see
(their commitment) in time as we take (further)
steps" against the rebels, Erdogan said.
According to Hasan Cemal, a veteran journalist who
has published books on the Kurdish issue, the White
House talks diminished the prospect of an imminent
Turkish incursion.
"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.
"The United States has strongly committed itself to
the struggle against the PKK," he said.
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.
Over 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK,
blacklisted by Turkey, the United States and the
European Union, 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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