|
U.S. official criticizes Iraqi Kurds
22.4.2007 |
|
|
|
Report: U.S. official accuses Iraqi Kurds for
tensions between Iraq, Turkey
April
22, 2007
CAIRO, Egypt - A U.S. official, in a
television interview aired Saturday, blamed Kurdish
authorities in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) for
raising tensions with neighboring Turkey recently.
David Satterfield, senior adviser to Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, told the pan-Arab satellite
channel Al-Arabiya that Iraqi Kurds are not doing
enough to stop violence on Iraq's northern border
with Turkey. He said the U.S. was mediating in talks
between the Iraqis and Turks over the feud.
Earlier this month, Massoud Barzani, president of
the Kurdistan autonomous region in northern Iraq,
threatened that Iraq's
Kurds would
retaliate if Turkey persisted in "interfering" in
Iraqi affairs, particularly regarding the
oil-rich Kirkuk city. Ankara does not want to see
Kirkuk under control of the Kurds, fearing that
would strengthen them.
|
David Satterfield, senior advisor to U.S. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice, arrives at Turkish
Foreign Ministry for talks on Iraq, in Ankara,
Turkey, Friday, April 20, 2007 AP |
Barzani said Iraqi Kurds could strike back and
intervene in Turkey's southeast where the region's
Kurdish majority has been fighting for decades
against Turkish security forces for autonomy.
The U.S. State Department has scolded Barzani over
the threats.
"We have a dialogue, a trilateral dialogue" going
on, to resolve the crisis, said Satterfield said who
spoke from the Saudi capital, Riyadh,
He expressed U.S. concerns over the presence of the
insurgent Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, along the
border between Iraq and Turkey, a close U.S. ally.
Ankara says the PKK use bases in northern Iraq to
launch attacks into southern Turkey. Turkey is
growing angry over the failure of U.S. and Iraqi
forces to curb the attacks. The Turkish military
claims as many as 3,800 rebels are based just across
the border in Iraq and that as many as 2,300 more
operate inside Turkey.
"The Kurdish leadership must do more to address this
problem of terror and terrorism," Satterfield told
Al-Arabiya.
More than 37,000 people have been killed in fighting
between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels
since 1984, most of them in the mainly Kurdish
region of southeastern region bordering Iraqi
Kurdistan region. Turkey fears that any moves toward
greater independence for Kurds in northern Iraq
could incite Turkey's own estimated 14 million Kurds
to outright rebellion.
Turkish Gen. Yasar Buyukanit recently asked the
government for a permission to attack Kurdish
guerrillas inside Iraq, a request that has strained
relations between Ankara and Washington.
Any Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq
would put the already over-stretched U.S. military
in the middle of a fight between two crucial
partners, and Washington has urged Turkish
restraint.
AP
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.
The Iraqi Constitution mandates that a referendum on
control of Kirkuk must be held by the end of this
year 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.
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.
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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 