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Turkey arrests Kurdish DTP official over
Kirkuk comments
23.2.2007
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DTP Diyarbakir provincial head Aydogdu detained
February 23, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Southeastern-Turkey, February 23,
-- Turkish authorities charged a Kurdish official 'Hilmi
Aydogdu' on Friday with inciting "hatred" for
suggesting any military intervention by Turkey in
Kurdistan autonomous region (northern Iraq) would be
viewed as an attack on all Kurds.
Turkey is deeply worried about growing tensions
between Kurds, Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen in
the oil-rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk in northern
Iraq, and has hinted it might take military action
to protect its own national interests.
Ankara suspects Iraqi Kurds want to set up an
independent state with Kirkuk as its capital that
could in turn reignite separatist unrest among its
own Kurds in southeast Turkey.
Hilmi Aydogdu, head of the mostly Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP) in the southeastern Kurdish
province of Diyarbakir, could face up to three years
in jail if found guilty of a law that prohibits
"inciting the people to hatred and enmity". |
Hilmi Aydogdu, head of the mostly Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP) in the southeastern Kurdish
province of Diyarbakir |
In remarks widely carried by Turkish newspapers,
Aydogdu said a strike against
Kirkuk would be
tantamount to a strike on the city of Diyarbakir
because Turkish Kurds had strong cultural ties with
their ethnic kin in northern Iraq.
He said Turkey should instead try to act as a bridge
between the Kurdish and Turkmen populations of Iraq.
In a statement issued before his arrest on Friday,
Aydogdu said he stood by his previous comments,
saying they were made in good faith and not intended
to stir up tensions.
"Of course if there is any kind of intervention in
Kirkuk or in northern Iraq this would cause Turkey
to suffer very serious events and developments,"
Aydogdu said.
"Kirkuk is the problem of Iraq's Kurds, Arabs and
Turkmen, and it is for them to find a solution
according to their own internal (political)
dynamics," he said.
The status of Kirkuk is due to be decided by a
referendum later this year. Turkey has accused the
Iraqi Kurds of deliberately bolstering their numbers
in the city in an attempt to ensure Kirkuk opts to
join the autonomous Kurdistan region.
Kirkuk and the general security situation in Iraq
topped the agenda of Friday's meeting of Turkey's
National Security Council (MGK), which groups the
president, prime minister, senior cabinet members
and top army generals.
Reuters
**
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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