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Turkey: DTP official 'Any attack on Kirkuk
same as one on Diyarbakir'
23.2.2007 |
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February 23, 2007
Diyarbakir, Southeastern-Turkey, -- A
pro-Kurdish political party official yesterday said
that advantages won by Kurds in Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq) should be protected, adding that any
counter move to weaken the Kurdish movement there
would be much the same as "cutting the veins of
Kurds in Turkey."
"We consider an attack on Kirkuk as the same as one
on Diyarbakir," said Democratic Society Party (DTP)
Diyarbakir branch head Ibrahim Aydogdu, a staunch
Kurdish nationalist, whose remarks appeared on the
Pukmedia, website of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), directly clashing with those of
Turkey.
"We see interference in the course of events in
Kirkuk as totally irrational and the imaginings of a
mind refusing to understand the historical facts,"
he added, referring to the approaching referendum
for the future status of the oil-rich city.
Turkey has many times urged the regional Kurdistan
administration to stop Kurdish migration to the
city, accusing them of trying to change the
demographic composition of the city in order to take
advantage in the referendum.
"The referendum will be a major turning point for
the Kurds. It will open a new era with the decline
of the Arabization policy of Saddam Hussein in the
region and with bringing a real democratic regime in
which the Kurds will take their equal place,"
Aydogdu said, describing Kirkuk as a strategically
important center to give strength to the Kurds,
allowing them to protect their advantages.
He also said that seeing a Kurdish leader as the
prime minister of the country is very pleasing,
adding that Jalal Talabani's being the president
will give rise to the establishment of the Kurdish
identity and nationalism as well as bringing a more
democratic system to the region with Kurds
recognized as an equal people in the Middle East.
He also said that Talabani and Iraqi Kurdistan
Democrat Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani will be
invited to the Nevruz celebrations in the city
calling their participation a gesture to honor them.
thenewanatolian com
**
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
about 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be
held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be
annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan region
in Iraq's north.
** 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 as many as 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.
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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