|
U.S.: We'll Eliminate Kurdish PKK rebels
within six months
22.11.2007
|
|
|
|
November 22, 2007
Baghdad, -- The United States Army has
assured Turkey it will eliminate the Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraqi Kurdistan
within six months.
Vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Gen. James Cartwright, and Gen. David Petraeus, the
U.S. army's top commander in Iraq, said the
cooperation between Turkey and the United States
would flush out the PKK from northern Iraq by May
2008, according to the Turkish daily Sabah.
The two U.S. generals met on Wednesday with the
Turkish deputy chief of General Staff, Gen. Ergin
Saygun, and General Staff Chief of Operations, Gen.
Nusret Taşdelen. During the meeting the four
discussed the success of the real-time intelligence
flow the U.S. provided Turkey. The agreement to
share intelligence was discussed earlier this month
during a meeting between U.S. President George W.
Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"The PKK will not be in its current position next
May. It will not have the power to strike Turkey
again from northern Iraq," Cartwright and Petraeus
indicated.
Nevertheless, Cartwright and Petraeus asserted that
Turkey still had the right to launch a cross-border
operation into northern Iraq for purposes of self-defense.
They expressed their opinion that air strikes,
rather than a land operation, would be the best
solution if Turkey decided to move against the PKK
in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Turkish leaders have said that a military
strike might be unnecessary. www.ekurd.net
"We need to find different solutions if the
terrorists keep being replaced by new recruits…
Measures other than the use of military force are
required in the fight against terrorism," President
'Abdallah Gül said.
Turkey's Foreign Minister 'Ali Babacan made similar
remarks, when he said the government was preparing
"fast and similar" reforms regarding the Kurdish
population in Turkey.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
themedialine org
**
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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 