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Jalal Talabani: KDP and PUK never
supported PKK
26.2.2007 |
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February
26, 2007
Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- President Jalal Talabani
of Iraq said the leading Kurdish parties never
supported the PKK and declared the Iraqi Kurds want
good relations with Turkey.
Speaking to journalists after a leadership meeting
of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) the Iraqi
president who is a leading Kurd said the Kurds have
had contacts with the PKK to encourage them to
continue a ceasefire in Turkey and said "we do not
want bloodshed among Turks and Kurds."
Talabani who is also the leader of the PUK was
flanked by Massoud Barzani, the president of the
Kurdistan region of Iraq and the head of the KDP,
who said he supports Talabani's statement.
"Neither the KDP nor the PUK have ever supported the
PKK. We always cooperated with Turkey against the
PKK. But we also stress that we do not see a
military operation (by Turkey) against the PKK as a
remedy. We feel a political solution is needed to
the problem." Talabani said there are now more
Turkish leaders who think on these lines.
Talabani stressed that the Kurds want "very good"
ties with Turkey. He stressed this is to the benefit
of both sides.
The Iraqi president said during the Ozal era Turkey
supported the Kurds and said "we have never
forgotten this. We want to resume the positive
atmosphere created at that time."
On Kirkuk Talabani said he and Iraq's Shiite Arab
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki share the same view
that Kirkuk is an internal affair of Iraq and that
it should be solved according to article 140 of the
constitution which foresees a referendum by the end
of the year to decide the future status of the
province.
Massoud Barzani also said Iraqi Kurds are against
any Turkish military operation against the PKK in
their region and have informed the United States
about this.
Talabani said the meeting of the Iraqi Kurdish
leadership which included Massoud Barzani, Masrour
Barzani, Nechirvan Barzani, Fazil Mirani, Adnan
Mufti, and Kosrad Resul also took up the relations
of the Kurdish region with neighboring states.
Talabani noted that they had good dialogue with Iran
and that Tehran had hosted Nechirvan Barzani as the
prime minister of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. He
also said the Iraqi Kurds are in close contact with
Kuwait and Syria.
He said the meeting took up the pending oil law in
Baghdad and prepared a final draft that will satisfy
the demands of the Kurds to be able to run their own
oil industry. The oil law was presented to the
meeting by Dr.Barham Saleh, the deputy prime
minister of Iraq in charge of oil affairs. Saleh is
also a leading Kurd.
There were objections to the draft prepared by
Baghdad but they were clarified after a series of
phone conversations with Prime Minister Maliki in
Baghdad. Later the oil meeting was attended by U.S.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalikzad.
Talabani also told the press conference that he is
hopeful that the current security operation in
Baghdad will be "70 percent successful."
The Iraqi president said the Kurds are trying to
contribute to the Baghdad security operation by
sending forces. Barzani stressed that the forces
sent to Baghdad are not the Peshmerga forces of
Kurdistan but former Peshmerga soldiers who are now
part of the Iraqi army and who are linked to the
Ministry of Defense.
Talabani also said he was dismayed by the incident
over the weekend when American forces apprehended a
leading Shiite Arab leader who was returning form
Iraq. Ammar Hakim, the son of Shiite leader
Abdulaziz Hakim was taken into custody by American
forces for 11 hours upon his arrival by land route
form Iran. Hakim said he was blindfolded and
interrogated.
Talabani and Barzani phoned Abdulaziz Hakim and
conveyed their regrets over "this ugly incident."
Iraqi Kurdish leaders have recently been embarrassed
by the actions of American forces. The latest
incident was in January when U.S. forces arrested
six Iranian officials serving in Erbil at Iran's
liaison office.
thenewanatolian com
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