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Bush backs Turkish strikes on Kurdish PKK
rebels
25.12.2007
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December
25, 2007
ANKARA, -- US President George W. Bush Monday
spoke to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and stressed their common fight against Turkey's
Kurdish PKK rebels operating out of Iraqi Kurdistan,
officials said.
White House national security spokesman Gordon
Johndroe said the two leaders spoke by telephone,www.ekurd.net
while Turkish news
agency Anatolia said Bush gave his backing for
military strikes on bases of the Turkish Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK).
"The president and the prime minister exchanged
greetings and best wishes for the New Year,"
Johndroe said.
"They also discussed their common efforts to fight
terrorism, and the importance of the United States,
Turkey and Iraq working together to confront the PKK,"
he said. |
U.S. President George W. Bush J. (L) and
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
According to Anatolia, the two men hailed the
cooperation in Ankara's battle against the outlawed
PKK, which has seen Turkey launch air raids and a
limited ground incursion into Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq'.
They agreed to continue sharing intelligence and
again classed the PKK as a "common enemy", Anatolia
said, stressing that Erdogan told Bush that Turkey's
military operations were only targeting rebels.
The Turkish air force on December 16 bombed Qandil,
the headquarters of some 3,500 PKK fighters
according to Ankara, with a brief ground incursion
the next day.
A second set of air raids took place on Saturday,
with Turkish planes attacking rebel positions in
Kurdistan region 'the far northeast of Iraq' again
on Sunday.
No loss of life or damage was reported, according to
Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for Iraqi Kurdistan
government security forces (Peshmerge).
The Turkish military has yet to confirm Sunday's
raids.
Over 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
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.
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK freedom fighters as a
"terrorist organisation"
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, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community 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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