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Turkey set timetable for intrusions into Kurdistan
region-north Iraq
21.4.2007 |
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April
21, 2007
ANKARA, -- The Turkish military has set a
"specific timetable" for trans-borders operations
including intrusions into autonomous Kurdistan
region (northern Iraq), Turkish NTV news website
reported Friday.
The move coincided with the arrival in Ankara by
senior advisor to US Secretary of State Ambassador
David Satterfield on an official visit to Turkey to
discourage it from pushing ahead with the plan.
The plan, envisaging the intrusion of thousands of
Turkish troops into the Kurdistani (northern Iraq)
areas to hunt rebel Kurds, is about to be a realty,
according to the report.
The Turkish military grew impatient with the
escalating campaign of the Iraqi-based Kurdish
Workers Party (PKK) inside Turkey.
The army will keep following up closely the
developments of the situation till the end of April,
then it will start moving in, it noted.
Since March, the army is carrying out a large-scale
campaign against the PKK bases and militants in
Turkey's southeastern provinces.
The campaign was described by a Washington Post
newspaper "a time bomb." During his visit to
Washington last week, Turkish coordinator of Kurd
affairs Adip Bashar informed the U.S. Administration
that his country would wait till the end of April
before intruding into Kurdistan (northern Iraq) to
exercise its legitimate right of self-defense.
Some 500 Kurd separatists exist in small bases
inside Turkey while 5,000 others crossed the borders
to Iraq to launch attacks against Turkish targets,
according Turkish military estimates.
Since the PKK took arms against Turkey in pursuit of
establishing an independent state for Kurds in
mainlu Kurdish southeastern provinces in 1984, up to
37,000 people were killed from both sides.
kuna net kw
** 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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