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Turkey thanks US help as jets bomb Iraqi
Kurdistan
27.12.2007
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December
27, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey praised the United
States on Wednesday for providing intelligence in
support of attacks against Turkey's Kurdish PKK
rebels in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', as it
confirmed its third such air strike in 10 days.
"Things are going on well at the moment.
Intelligence is being shared" between the two NATO
allies, Anatolia news agency quoted President
Abdullah Gul as saying.
US support "befits our alliance," Gul said, adding:
"Both of us are satisfied. This is how it should be.
We could have come to this point earlier."
But the White House expressed concern to Ankara over
the possible escalation of Turkey's attacks inside
Iraq, especially "anything that could lead to ...
civilian casualties," spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
Wednesday's air strike was the third against
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq' that the military has
confirmed since December 16, in addition to a
cross-border ground operation.
The raid followed intelligence that "a large group
of terrorists, who have been watched for a long
time, are preparing to pass the winter in eight
caves and hideouts in the Zap region," the general
staff said in a statement.
"Our warplanes hit the targets in an effective air
raid that started in the morning hours of December
26," it said, without mentioning casualties.
Officials in Iraqi Kurdistan said the strike
targeted deserted villages along the border, but the
extent of the damage was not known.
The aircraft struck an area called Nirvorokan in
Duhok province at around 8:30 am (0530 GMT), they
said, while a news agency close to the PKK reported
that some 10 warplanes took part in the raid.
Iraqi Kurds have reported two other air strikes this
month that Turkey has not confirmed, including a
brief one on Tuesday.
The general staff said six PKK militants were killed
Wednesday in mountains inside Turkey near the Iraqi
Kurdistan frontier, bringing to 11 the death toll
from a two-day security operation in the area. Two
rebels were captured.
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.
Faced with mounting PKK violence and exasperated by
the safe haven which Ankara says the rebels enjoy in
northern Iraq, the government secured in October a
one-year parliamentary authorisation for
cross-border strikes.
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.
Ankara says an estimated 3,500 PKK militants have
taken refuge in northern Iraq, using camps there as
a springboard for attacks across the border.
At least 150 rebels were killed on December 16 in
the largest air strike in northern Iraq so far, when
fighter jets bombed positions along the Turkish
border and in the Qandil mountains to the east, the
military said Tuesday.
The strike, it said, destroyed more than 200 PKK
targets, including command, training and logistical
bases as well as anti-aircraft defence positions and
ammunition depots.
Following talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan in November, US President George W. Bush
called the PKK a common enemy and promised
"real-time" intelligence on the rebel movement.
Analysts says the Turkish raids had a secondary
purpose of discouraging a quick referendum on Kirkuk
city, oil rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region.
Article 140, in Iraq's 2005 constitution calls for a
referendum in Kirkuk to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north by
the end of 2007.www.ekurd.net
In December 2007,
Kurdish leaders agreed to a six-month extension of
that deadline, but no longer.
Ankara is anxious to prevent the emergence of a
Kurdish state in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq',
fearing this could fan separatism among its own
large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
Meanwhile a bomb blast in Turkey's biggest city,
Istanbul, that killed a woman and injured six other
people on Wednesday has been blamed on PKK
militants.
Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler claimed the blast
was caused by a "percussion bomb planted by the
separatist terrorist organization," official code
for the PKK, the Anatolia news agency reported.
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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