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President of Kurdistan visits refugees
fleeing Turkish attack
24.12.2007
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December
24, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq',--,
Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani visited
refugees on Sunday that had fled border areas of
Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq' after Turkish
air strikes pounded areas close to their villages
late on Saturday.
Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous
Kurdistan region, strongly condemned the attacks and
renewed calls for a peaceful solution.
"These daily strikes are unacceptable ... Their goal
is not only the PKK but the whole idea of an
autonomous Kurdish region," he told a group of
families, in comments broadcast on his party's
Kurdistan TV channel.
"This problem is not solved militarily and we are
prepared for all peaceful solutions. I have come
here to thank you for your patience and assure you
that we will rebuild the border areas and the
situation will not remain this way," he said. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
Iraqi Kurdistan 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',www.ekurd.net
Turkey fears this could
fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
Kurdistan security forces (Peshmerga) said
Saturday's aerial bombardment caused no casualties
because the area was largely evacuated in
anticipation of Turkish military action. Turkey said
its warplanes had bombed Turkey's separatist PKK
rebel positions inside Iraqi Kurdistan.
Over the past three months, Turkey, which has massed
up to 100,000 troops near its border with Iraqi
Kurdistan, has carried out occasional air and
artillery strikes and small-scale raids by ground
forces across the border against Turkish PKK
targets.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly
40,000 people.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a
'terrorist' group by Turkey, US and EU.
Since 1984 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,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
Reuters
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