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US urges caution after Turkish army threatens
operation into Kurdistan region-Iraq
14.4.2007 |
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April
14, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 12,-- The United States
urged Turkey on Thursday to refrain from launching
cross-border raids against Kurdish guerrilla bases
in neighboring Kurdistan-Iraq, although it agreed
the rebels "need to be dealt with."
The assistant secretary of state for Europe, Dan
Fried, made the appeal in a telephone call to
Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy after Turkey's army
chief argued publicly in favor of a military
incursion into northern Iraq to crack down on Kurd
rebels there, US officials said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Fried
told the envoy such incursions were "an option that
everybody should work to avoid."
Fried urged the Turkish government to pursue
US-brokered negotiations with leaders of the Kurdish
autonomous area of northern Iraq aimed at curbing
the activities of the separatist Kurdistan Workers'
Party, or PKK, which Washington and Ankara consider
a terrorist group.
"The focus should be on trying to resolve this in a
cooperative way, in a joint way, rather than to
resort to unilateral actions," McCormack said.
But the US spokesman went on to say it was
imperative to counter the PKK, which has waged a
bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's
southeast since 1984, an insurgency that has already
claimed about 37,000 lives.
"Clearly the terrorist activities of the PKK are
completely unacceptable," he said. "They are a
terrorist group and they need to be dealt with."
The US reacted after Turkey's top military
commander, General Yasar Buyukanit, told a press
conference: "If you ask me whether a cross-border
operation is needed, yes it is needed. It would be
useful."
The army, he said however, had not yet asked the
government for parliamentary authorization for an
incursion into Iraq.
A special US envoy, retired general Joseph Ralston,
has been trying for months to lower tensions between
Turkey, a key US military ally, and Iraqi Kurdish
leaders whose support is essential for US efforts to
stabilize that country.
But the dispute has only worsened in recent weeks,
when there has also been an upsurge of fighting in
Turkey between the army and PKK units, which have
left 10 soldiers and 29 rebels dead this month.
Ankara fears that moves towards Kurdish independence
in northern Iraq could fuel the PKK's separatist
campaign in southeast Turkey.
Washington for its part is concerned that Turkey
operations against PKK bases inside Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq) could destabilize one of the few
relatively stable parts of the country.
AFP
** 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
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