Safin Dizeyi: Turkish tanks cannot cross into Iraqi Kurdistan Region  28.5.2007

"The people of Kurdistan will not remain spectators to the crossing of Turkish tanks and panzers into Kirkuk," he was quoted as saying by the Dogan News Agency (DHA), which took excerpts from statements made by the Iraqi Kurdish official to Kurdish-broadcasting Web site "Nefel."

Dizeyi admitted that Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdistan goverment in the north were not currently on friendly terms and underlined Turkey would be unable to get its soldiers past the Habur border gate and to the Kurdish city of Kirkuk.

The Turkish military says a cross-border operation into Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) is needed to clamp down on PKK bases and to stop the infiltration of the PKK rebelss armed with weapons and explosives intending to carry out attacks in Turkey.

"Turkey also knows this (a military incursion) is out of the question. The world will not allow this. The U.S. is here and does want such a problem. The people of Kurdistan will not accept this either. We don't expect Turkey to carry out a cross-border operation, as is said… This is not possible,” he said.

Washington has warned Ankara against a cross-border operation in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq), wary that such a move may destabilize a relatively peaceful region in the conflict-torn country and fuel tensions between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, a staunch U.S. ally.

turkishdailynews com tr

** 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.

Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in Turkey and are denied rights granted to other minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and education in the Kurdish language, but critics say the measures do not go far enough.

Others estimate over 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 over 25 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 

** 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 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.

Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north. 

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