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President of Iraq's Kurdistan Government
refuses to meet with Rice
19.12.2007
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He
refuses to meet with her, contending the U.S. gave
Turkey approval to attack guerrillas in Iraqi
Kurdistan.
December
19, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq',--
The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional
Government refused to meet Tuesday with U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice made an
unannounced
visit Tuesday
to the city of Kirkuk known as (Kurdish Jerusalem).
Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani contended the
United States had given Turkey the “green light” to
attack Turkey's separatist Kurdish PKK guerrillas in
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'. It was the first
open break between America and its allies in Iraqi
Kurdistan. |
Condoleezza Rice U.S. Secretary of State |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
President Massoud Barzani, who had been due to fly to
Baghdad to meet Rice, will not do so in protest,
Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said.
"It was decided that Massoud Barzani would go to
Baghdad to take part in a meeting with Condoleezza
Rice and other officials, but he will not go now as
a sign of protest against the American position on
the bombings by Turkey."
"It is unacceptable that the United States, in
charge of monitoring our airspace, authorised Turkey
to bomb our villages," he told reporters.
Turkey has long complained that guerrillas from the
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which
America considers a 'terrorist' group,www.ekurd.net
have been given shelter
in Iraqi Kurdistan. The PKK seeks to form an
independent Kurdistan in southeast of Turkey, and it
has broad support in Kurdistan 'Iraq'.
“The Kurdish people are angry with the American
administration because protecting the sky of
Kurdistan is their responsibility,” Barzani said in
a news conference Tuesday.www.ekurd.net
“If Turkey had not
received a green light from the United States, it
would not have been able to commit these crimes. It
would not have been able to kill those civilians.”
Turkish fighter jets Sunday
bombed reputed
PKK positions, killing at least three people,
wounding eight and displacing about 300, Kurdish
leaders said. The PKK said five of its members were
killed and two were wounded.
On Tuesday, about
500 Turkish soldiers
moved into Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq'.
There were no reports of fighting, but Rice’s
unannounced visit to Baghdad and Kirkuk spotlighted
the growing differences over how to deal with the
PKK in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
U.S. military commanders in Iraq didn’t know Turkey
was sending warplanes to bomb in northern Iraq until
the planes had already crossed the border, officials
said Tuesday.
Americans have been providing Turkey with
intelligence to go after Kurdish PKK rebels in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'. A “coordination center”
has been set up in Turkey, so that Turks, Iraqis and
Americans can share information, two officials said
Tuesday.
The Iraqi Kurds are the strongest allies the US has
in the area.
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.
More than 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.
A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in southeast of Turkey.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
AFP |
Mc.Clatchy, kansascity com
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