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Rice Raises Kurdish PKK guerrilla issue
with Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari
19.6.2007
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June
19, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- The United States and Iraq are
against any "terrorist" actions conducted in Iraqi
territory against Turkey, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said Monday.
Turkey has charged that the separatist Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) based in Kurdistan (northern
Iraq) and linked to a two-decade -old insurgency in
mainly Kurdish eastern and southeastern of Turkey is
acting under the protection of Iraqi Kurds who are
allied to the United States.
Violence increased in recent months as rebels hiding
in the rugged mountains of northern Iraq slipped
back across the border to attack Turkish troops,
effectively ending a unilateral ceasefire the PKK
declared in October 2006.
The PKK subject was part of talks in Washington
Monday between Rice and Iraqi foreign minister
Hoshyar Zebari.
"We discussed the importance of not allowing Iraqi
territory to be used for acts of terrorism against
neighbors in this case, particularly against
Turkey," Rice told reporters after the talks. |
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (R) talks
to Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari at the
beginning of their meeting in the Secretary's Outer
Office at the State Department in Washington June
18, 2007 Reuters |
She underlined the importance of a trilateral
security mechanism that Iraq, the United States and
Turkey had set up some time ago and "the importance
of accelerating" its work "because the Iraqis do not
want and we do not want their territory to be used
for terrorist acts against their neighbor."
The PKK, regarded as a terrorist group by the United
States and much of the international community, has
fought for Kurdish self-rule in the heavily Kurdish
southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has
claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Turkey has repeatedly demanded tougher action from
Iraq and the United States against the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), and refuses to rule out acting
unilaterally if its demands are not heeded.
Zebari, noting a Turkish defense buildup along the
border with Iraq, warned Sunday that any military
incursion by Ankara into the Kurdish north of Iraq
would undermine Iraq's sole haven of stability and
was in no one's interest.
Zebari, himself a Kurd, said Baghdad was in
consultation with the Turkish government to ease
tensions.
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.
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
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