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US withholds comment on reported Turkish
attack inside Iraqi Kurdistan
2.12.2007
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December
2, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- The White House withheld
comment Saturday on reports that Turkey had
undertaken military operations against the Turkey's
armed Kurdish separatist movement PKK in Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq'.
"We have been working hard since November 5 to
follow up the conversation between President (George
W.) Bush and Prime Minister Erdogan to increase
cooperation among Turkey, Iraq and the United States
to counter the PKK terrorist threat," White House
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe
said in a statement.
Earlier Turkey said it inflicted "heavy losses" with
airstrikes and artillery against a group of "50 to
60 terrorists ... inside Iraq's borders" in the
mountainous region southeast of the Turkish town of
Cukurca in Hakkari province.
US State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez declined
to confirm the reports of the Turkish attack.
"I can't confirm (those reports)," he told AFP.
"We're encouraging Turkey and Iraq to work
together," he added, referring to previous US calls
for Ankara to hold talks with Baghdad on the issue.
In Baghdad the US military said it had no reports of
Turkish military operations in northern Iraq.
"We have nothing; we have no reports like that at
all," spokesman Major Winfield Danielson said.
Danielson added the US military in Baghdad wouldn't
be expected to be the primary source of information
about any Turkish military activity in Iraq's
Kurdistan region.
www.ekurd.net
"The Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional
Government would be the first to know about
something like this. Kurdistan is an autonomous
region," he said.
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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