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Iraqi Kurdistan parliament discusses tensions with
Turkey
15.4.2007 |
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April 15, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
Iraq's Kurds are ready for talks with Turkey but
will not accept any Turkish military interference in
Iraq, the prime minister of the Kurdistan regional
government said Saturday.
Nechirvan Barzani spoke after the Kurdish parliament
held a meeting to discuss rising tensions with
Turkey. The president of the Kurdistan autonomous
region, Massoud Barzani, has suggested Iraqi Kurds
would interfere in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish
southeast if the country meddled in Iraq's affairs.
"We are ready to sit with them for a dialogue at any
time and in any place," said Nechirvan Barzani, who
is the nephew of the Kurdish president. "We don't
accept any military interference inside Iraq's
territory." |
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister
Nechirvan Barzani |
On Friday, Turkish troops killed four armed Kurdish
guerrillas who had crossed over the border from
Kurdistan (northern Iraq), according to Turkey's
government-owned Anatolia news agency. The
guerrillas were killed in a gunbattle that broke out
among troops and a group of about 15 rebels near the
town of Semdinli on the Iraqi border, Anatolia said.
The deaths bring to 17 the number of guerrillas
killed this week in clashes in Turkey's southeast.
Earlier in the week, the head of Turkey's armed
forces requested permission to launch an operation
into northern Iraq to attack the Kurdish rebels at
their bases there.
"Threats do not solve the problems. We are neighbors
and should solve our problems through dialogue," the
prime minister said.
Close to 40,000 people have died in fighting since
autonomy-seeking rebels of the Kurdistan Workers
Party, or PKK, took up arms against the Turkish
state in 1984.
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 more than 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to more than 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.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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