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Turkey to lobby U.S. over PKK Kurd rebels
in Kurdistan-Iraq
2.2.2007 |
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ANKARA, February
2, -- Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, facing
pressure on security issues ahead of elections, will
send his foreign minister to Washington next week to
lobby for a crackdown on Kurdish rebels in Kurdistan
(northern Iraq).
Ankara has repeatedly threatened to send troops into
Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) to crush Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) rebels if U.S. and Iraqi
government forces fail to take action, though most
analysts dismiss the threats as rhetoric to impress
voters.
There are presidential and parliamentary polls in
2007.
Against a backdrop of rising nationalism in Turkey,
partly due to disillusionment with the European
Union accession process, the ruling centre-right AK
Party says it cannot stand idly by if PKK attacks
resume as expected in the spring.
Ankara says some 4,000 PKK rebels are based in
northern Iraq from where they stage attacks into
Turkish territory.
Since the PKK launched its armed campaign for a
Kurdish homeland in 1984 more than 30,000 people
have been killed, mostly in Turkey's predominantly
Kurdish southeast.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will hold talks with
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser
Stephen Hadley.
"Gul will seek U.S. support in cracking down on PKK
terrorists. It's a major security concern for us,"
said a Turkish diplomat.
"We can't just sit on the sidelines when our boys
are being killed. We have been promised action but
seen few results."
IMPORTANT ALLY
Relations between NATO member Turkey and the U.S.
have improved after a low in 2003 when Ankara denied
U.S. forces permission to use its territory for the
Iraqi invasion, but Gul will still face a tough
time.
While the Americans value Turkey as an ally -- the
country's neighbours include Iraq, Iran and Syria --
and consider the PKK a terrorist organisation,
Washington may be wary of a crackdown in northern
Iraq because the area is a rare haven of relative
calm in a country ablaze.
Turkish media have said the government may propose a
compromise deal where Turkish, U.S. and Iraqi forces
jointly carry out attacks against PKK targets.
Armed forces chief General Yasar Buyukanit will
follow in Gul's footsteps a week later for talks
with Cheney, CIA Director Robert Gates and Hadley --
also focused on Iraq.
"This will be a more important meeting as the U.S.
military has no love lost for Turkey," said CNN Turk
diplomatic editor Semih Idiz.
"The Turkish military is concerned that the
Americans are in cahoots with the (Iraqi) Kurds and
in contact with the PKK."
Talks will also probably touch on Kirkuk, an
ethnically-mixed northern Iraqi city which has vast
oil reserves.
Kurds want to annex the city for their capital and
Iraq's new constitution mandates a local referendum
on the issue later this year.
Turkey is worried that greater autonomy for the
Kurdish-controlled area will threaten Turkey's own
security and has said it wants the referendum
postponed.
Turkey is home to some 20 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK,
which demands for independence for the southeastern
and heavily Kurdish Anatolia region
Reuters
* The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
more than 250,000 Kurdish residents of Kirkuk 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.
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. The Kurds have no rights in
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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