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U.S. acting against PKK Kurdish rebel
group in Kurdistan-Iraq, official says
15.3.2007
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March 15, 2007
WASHINGTON: The United States is dealing with
Turkish complaints about Kurdish separatists
operating in northern Iraq and has not ruled out
military action against the rebels, says the U.S.
official assigned to handle the problem.
Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, a
special envoy tasked with countering the Kurdistan
Workers Party, or PKK, said Wednesday in an
Associated Press interview that U.S. pressure has
resulted in moves against the group's operations by
Iraqi and European authorities.
Turkish officials repeatedly have accused the United
States of insufficient efforts to prevent attacks
into Turkey from Iraq by the PKK, which has waged a
guerrilla war for autonomy since 1984 at a cost of
37,000 lives. Turkey also has threatened military
incursions into Iraq against the rebels, which the
United States fears would alienate Iraqi Kurds, the
most pro-American ethnic group in the region.
Ralston said the United States has not yet met
Turkish demands for the capture of PKK operatives
and destruction of a rebel base in a mountainous
area of Iraq near the Turkish and Iranian border. He
said, however, that the United States would consider
options against the group available to a U.S.
military stretched by many challenges in Iraq.
"All options are on the table," he said. "The PKK is
a terrorist organization and needs to be put out of
business."
Ralston, a former Supreme Allied Commander in
Europe, who is to testify on U.S.-Turkish Relations
in a congressional hearing Thursday, stressed the
importance of resolving the deep-seated Turkish
worries about the PKK. Turkey, a crucial NATO ally,
provides vital support to U.S. operations in
Afghanistan and Iraq through Incirlik Air Base in
southern Turkey, one of the most important U.S.
military assets in the region.
"This is a country that has suffered greatly at the
hands of the PKK," Ralston said. "We ought to be
working with our ally to try to solve this problem."
Ralston said that negotiators from the United
States, Turkey and Iraq are close to a deal to close
a Kurdish refugee camp in northern Iraq that Turkey
says is a haven for the PKK. In late January, U.S.
and Iraqi forces searched the camp, known as Makhmur,
and found artillery shells they believe belonged to
the PKK, Ralston said.
He said PKK fighters have held a cease-fire since
October that was arranged by Massoud Barzani,
president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region,
after a discussion with Ralston.
"We would prefer the PKK announce they are laying
down their arms and renouncing violence," Ralston
said. "But on the good news side, to my knowledge
there have not been major incidents since that
time."
Under pressure, the Iraqi government legally banned
the PKK in January from operating in Iraq and closed
its offices. Ralston said some of the offices had
reopened under different names. U.S. and Turkish
pressure, he said, also led this year to the closure
of PKK fundraising operations in France and Belgium
and arrests there of more than a dozen Kurds accused
of supporting the PKK.
Officials from Turkey, Iraq and the United Nations
will meet next month to resolve a few remaining
issues preventing the closure of the Makhmur refugee
camp. Ralston said negotiators need to agree on
arrangements for repatriating refugees to Turkey and
what to do about those who do not want to go.
More than 30,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for a Kurdish homeland in the country's
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
AP
** 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.
Turkey is home to some 20 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of 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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