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Turkish FM says Turkey has right to act against
Kurdish PKK guerrillas in Iraqi Kurdistan region
4.6.2007 |
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June
4, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey's foreign minister on
Monday asserted his country's right to act against
Kurdish guerrillas in Kurdistan (northern Iraq).
"I have told them that we have every right to take
measures against terrorist activities directed at us
from northern Iraq," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul
told a news conference after a meeting with European
Union officials.
Turkey's political and military leaders have been
debating whether to stage an incursion into
Kurdistan (northern Iraq) to try to root out rebel
bases there.
However, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier said he "did not get the impression that
Turkey would stage an incursion."
On Monday, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported that
Turkish troops shelled a border area in Kurdistan
region (northern Iraq) for a second day early Monday
in an attack on Kurdish rebels based there. The
report could not immediately be confirmed.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Gul Abdullah |
The Dogan news agency reported that Kurdish
guerrillas attacked a Turkish military outpost,
injuring several soldiers.
The president of the autonomous Kurdistan region
in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, confirmed
shelling by Turkish troops on Kurdish areas early
Sunday but said there was no Turkish incursion.
On Monday, the Belgium-based Firat news agency,
citing local Iraqi Kurdish sources, said Turkish
artillery again targeted an area close to the border
town of Zakho. On Sunday, the agency said the troops
shelled the Hakurk area,
farther east.
Turkish authorities, who have called the Firat
agency a mouthpiece of the main Kurdish rebel group,
the PKK, were not immediately available to comment.
Kurdish guerrillas have long had camps in the Hakurk
area, 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the Turkish
border.
Turkish troops have occasionally launched brief
raids in pursuit of guerrillas in northern Iraq, and
have sometimes shelled suspected rebel positions
across the border. Turkish authorities rarely
acknowledge such military operations, which were
more frequent before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq
in 2003.
Turkey has been building up its military forces on
the Iraqi border in recent weeks, amid debate over
whether to launch a cross border offensive to attack
separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party,
known by its Kurdish acronym, PKK.
The rebels stage raids in southeast Turkey after
crossing over from hide-outs in Iraq.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and 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.
AP
** 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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