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U.S. reproaches Iraq Kurdistan president Barzani
for warnings to Turks
10.4.2007 |
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A
recent statement by Iraqi Kurdistan president
Massoud Barzani that Iraqi Kurds would intervene in
Turkish matters unless Turkey stops intervening in
Kirkuk was "really unhelpful," State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said.
April
10, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- The United States criticized
Iraqi Kurdistan regional president Massoud Barzani
Monday for threatening to fuel Kurdish separatist
fervor in Turkey amid a spike in tensions between
the neighbors.
"We think that those kinds of statements are really
unhelpful and they certainly do not further the goal
of greater Turkish-Iraqi cooperation," State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in response
to Barzani's
remarks.
"We think that Iraqi leaders should focus on how
they might work together closely with the Turkish
government to further their mutual interests in a
stable, secure Iraq," he said.
Mccormack also confirmed that Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice spoke with her Turkish counterpart,
Abdullah Gul, over the weekend as the dispute with
the Iraqis heated up. |
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
Barzani, the head of the autonomous Kurdistan region
in northern Iraq, was quoted in a weekend interview
threatening to interfere in Turkey's affairs if
Ankara continued to oppose Kurdish claims on the
oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
The future status of the northern Iraqi city is
scheduled to be decided in a referendum before the
end of this year. Turkey wants the vote postponed,
arguing that thousands of Kurds have been moved into
the city to change its demography.
Ankara worries that Kurdish control of Kirkuk and
its vast oil reserves would embolden what it
believes are Kurdish ambitions to break away from
Baghdad.
Kurdish independence, it fears, could fuel the
two-decade Kurdish separatist insurgency in
adjoining southeast Turkey.
Tensions are already high between the two sides over
Turkish accusations that Iraqi Kurds tolerate, and
even support, thousands of armed Turkish Kurd rebels
who have found refuge in the mountains of northern
Iraq.
Ankara has threatened a cross-border operation into
the region to crack down on the rebel camps if
Baghdad and Washington fail to act against them.
Barzani's latest remarks sparked an angry response
from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
who warned the Iraqi Kurds on Monday that hostility
toward his country could result in a "very heavy
cost" for them.
A senior Turkish diplomat told AFP that Gul conveyed
Turkey's annoyance to Rice during their weekend
telephone conversation.
According to McCormack, Rice sought to calm tensions
and thanked Gul for his efforts to convene a meeting
of Iraq's neighbors and major world powers next
month to discuss ways to stabilize Iraq.
Washington had sought to have the meeting held in
Istanbul, but Baghdad chose instead to organize the
gathering in Egypt, reportedly in response to
pressure from Iraqi Kurds.
Rice "expressed her support for Turkey's actions in
rallying the neighbors to get together for the Iraq
neighbors conference," he said.
McCormack also echoed Turkish concerns that the
rebel Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) could step up
cross-border attacks into Turkey as warmer spring
weather arrives.
Rice has named a retired US general, Joseph Ralston,
as a special envoy working to lower tensions between
the Turks and Iraqi Kurds.
"We're now coming up on the springtime, which is
traditionally when the PKK goes on the offensive,
crossing the border into Turkey. Nobody wants to see
that," he said.
AFP
**
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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