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Iraqi Kurdistan region rejects Turkish
demand for buffer zone
15.6.2007
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June
15, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), June 15, --
Turkey's request to create a security buffer zone,
300 kilometres long and 10-15 kilometres wide,
inside Iraqi Kurdistan has been rejected by the
authorities in the autonomous Kurdistan region, a
leading official has revealed.
The Iraqi president's personal representative in
Turkey, Bahroz Kilali, told Turkish television
channel NTV that "the request has been rejected, we
will never accept the creation of such a security
zone inside Iraqi Kurdistan." He added that "the
unresolved questions between the two countries can
be resolved through meetings of the triple
US-Iraq-Turkey commission."
Kilali then underlined that the hypothesis of this
buffer zone "has been doing the rounds in political
and media circles in Turkey and Ankara considers it
a solution to its problem with the PKK ( Kurdish
Workers Party) but we do not countenance this
request in any way".
"It (a buffer zone) will be effective and stop PKK
infiltrations from northern Iraq but an agreement
with Iraqi and US officials is needed to do so,"
Turkish Daily News quoted retired Major Gen. Armagan
Kuloglu as saying.
At the same time, Turkish media sources said Friday
that the Iraqi prime minsiter Nuri al-Maliki had
received an urgent official invitation from his
counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to visit Ankara for
talks on the situation.
Al-Maliki has not responded and it is not clear
whether the invitation was strictly personal or
whether others would take part in the meeting.
Turkey, which has 200,000 troops deployed along its
border with Kurdistan (Iraq) and in recent weeks has
been amassing tanks and artillery in the area is
under international pressure not to carry out a
major military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan
territory.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by the
United States and the European Union.
adnki com
** 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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