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Turkish army says confronting Barzani forces a
possibility
31.5.2007 |
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May
31, 2007
ISTANBUL, Turkey, -- Turkish troops could
find themselves fighting Iraqi Kurdish forces that
control autonomous Kurdistan region in (northern
Iraq) if they launch a crossborder operation
to strike at Turkish Kurd rebels based there,
Turkey's top general said Thursday.
The chief of general staff, General Yasar Buyukanit,
said he favored an incursion into Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq) to clean up Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) bases there, but said the order to do so must
come from the government.
"The political authorities must determine whether,
once we go in (to northern Iraq), we act only
against the PKK or if something will happen with
Barzani as well," he said, referring to Massoud
Barzani, the president of Kurdistan autonomous
region's government.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an
international military symposium at the War Academy
here.
President Barzani, who is also the leader of the
Kurdistan Democratic Party, has always strongly
opposed any Turkish military action against
Kurdistan region (northern Iraq).
But vocal support for a Turkish incursion there has
been growing since PKK activities in the southerast
increased with the spring thaw and a suicide bomb
attack in Ankara, blamed on the PKK, killed six and
wounded 121 last week in Ankara.
"I already told Turkey and the world (at a press
conference) on April 12 that we need this,"
Buyukanit said, referring to an eventual crossborder
operation.
"As military men, we are ready, but all military men
need orders," he said before adding, in an apparent
swipe at the government: "I can't send them a
written request, can I? What do they expect from
me?"
On May 23, the day after the bomb attack in Ankara,
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his
government would support the army if it sought to
strike at PKK bases in northern Iraq.
But Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who is also the
deputy prime minister, said two days later that
Turkey had no immediate plans for such action.
Turkey says thousands of PKK rebels enjoy safe haven
in the border mountains of Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq), where they obtain weapons and
explosives for attacks against Turkish targets in
the secessionist war they launched in the Kurdish
majority southeast in 1984, at a cost of more than
37,000 lives so far.
The army strenghtened its presence and launched
clean-up operations in several eastern and
southeastern Turkish provinces as PKK activities
increased in recent weeks, as they do every spring.
In the latest of series of almost daily clashes,
four PKK militants were killed Thursday in a
gunbattle with the army in the east and southeast 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 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.
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.
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
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