Incursion won't be tolerated, region's president
declares
June 14, 2007
Salahuddin, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- The
president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq has warned
Turkey against pursuing Kurdistan Worker's Party
fighters into Iraqi territory.
In an interview with the Citizen, President Massoud
Barzani made it clear that movement by Turkish
forces into Kurdistan region of Iraq would not be
tolerated.
He made his statement from his headquarters in
Salahuddin, about 45 minutes from the Kurdish
regional capital of Erbil.
He was responding to a statement made Tuesday in
Ankara by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, who said Turkey should concentrate on
fighting rebels inside Turkey.
The prime minister said Turkish forces should enter
northern Iraq only as a last resort. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
|
Mr. Barzani agreed that the best resolution was a
peaceful one.
"For the last 23 years (Turkey) has been working
through military operations to solve this problem,
but it won't succeed," said Mr. Barzani.
"It has been proven that they cannot solve this with
military force. Whatever they do in Turkey is their
internal problem and has nothing to do with us, but
at the same time we do not accept the Turks putting
their crisis into the Kurdistan region."
On Tuesday, the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK,
declared a ceasefire in battling Turkish forces
massed along the border of southeastern Turkey ahead
of a security meeting in Ankara.
However, the group said it would continue to defend
itself against Turkish forces, the Firat News Agency
reported.
The politically powerful Turkish military has been
pressuring the government to consent to a
cross-border operation for months, despite strong
objections to such actions by governments in
Washington and Baghdad.
The stance by the Turkish government to cross the
border only as a last resort comes after recent
aggressive actions taken by the military in sending
a massive amount of forces along the border to
neighbouring Iraq.
Source: canada com/ottawacitizen
** 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.
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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