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Turkey's PM issued a warning to Kurdistan's region
president Barzani
9.4.2007 |
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Fouad
Hussein, an aide to Kurdistan's president Barzani
and head of his presidential office, denied the
Iraqi Kurdistan president was threatening Ankara.
April
9, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey's prime minister issued a
stern warning on Monday to Iraqi Kurdistan president
Massoud Barzani over comments he made about Ankara's
policy towards northern Iraq, saying Barzani would
"be crushed by his own words".
Ankara said it might take measures against Kurdistan
(northern Iraq), as seven separatist fighters and a
Turkish soldier died in clashes in increasing
violence in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. |
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
Barzani said in
a television interview at the weekend that if Ankara
interfered in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq), as
it has threatened to do, Iraqi Kurds would interfere
in Kurdish cities in Turkey.
"They should be very careful in their use of words
... otherwise they will be crushed by those words
... Barzani has again exceeded the limits," Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in televised
remarks.
A Barzani aide later said the Kurd leader's comments
had not been meant as a threat. Ankara is deeply
concerned about what it sees as moves by Iraqi Kurds
to build an independent state in northern Iraq,
fearing this could in turn reignite separatism among
its own Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
Turkey is especially worried that Iraqi Kurds will
wrest control of the oil-rich but multi-ethnic city
of Kirkuk after a referendum on the city's status
due by the end of 2007, turning it into their new
capital.
In his weekend interview, Barzani, who is president
of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, said he would
not allow Turkey to intervene in Kirkuk and stressed
the city's Kurdish identity.
"Turkey is not allowed to interfere in the Kirkuk
issue and if it does we will interfere in
Diyarbakir's affairs and other cities in Turkey,"
Barzani told Al-Arabiyah television.
Diyarbakir is the largest city in southeast Turkey.
MEASURES
Asked about Erdogan's comments on Monday, Fouad
Hussein, an aide to Kurdistan's president Barzani
and head of his presidential office, denied the
Iraqi Kurdistan president was threatening Ankara.
"Massoud Barzani did not wish to threaten Turkey but
he intended to stress a fundamental principle and
consistent policy of the Kurdish leader, which calls
for non-interference in the business of others on
condition of non-interference in our affairs,"
Hussein told Reuters in Erbil, Kurdistan (northern
Iraq).
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul complained to
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday
over Barzani's comments and State Minister Kursad
Tuzmen said on Monday Ankara could take unspecified
measures "when the time comes".
"Northern Iraq is making a very serious mistake with
these steps," Erdogan said.
Some opposition figures have called for temporarily
closing the Habur border gate between Turkey and
Iraq as a protest.
In the past, both government ministers and army
generals have also affirmed Turkey's right under
international law to send troops into Iraq if
necessary "in self-defence".
Ankara has repeatedly urged Baghdad and U.S. forces
based in Iraq to crack down on an estimated 4,000
PKK fighters hiding in the mountains of northern
Iraq, but they have failed to act.
Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than
30,000 people since the group launched its armed
campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey
in 1984. (Additional reporting by Zerin Elci in
Ankara and Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil)
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.
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 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)
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