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Tensions grow in Iraqi Kurdistan over Turkish
military buildup
11.6.2007 |
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June
11, 2007
Iraqi Kurds living near the Turkish border continue
to report regular shelling in remote areas in recent
days. Turkish generals have threatened strikes
inside Iraq to eliminate support networks for
Kurdish separatist fighters who operate in Turkey.
But U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned Turkey
against military action.
Iraqi Kurdish media have reported near-nightly
artillery attacks in the past few days in the rural
northwest of the country (Kurdistan region), near
the Turkish border.
Abdullah Salah, an Iraqi parliament member from
Kurdistan, told Iraqi television that several
villages near the border city of Zakho have been
targeted.
He says the locations shelled by the Turkish are
north of Zakho. He says they are very close to the
Turkish border.
A local Kurdish political leader in Zakho says the
shelling has been regular, but the violence has not
escalated.
He says frankly, along the border Turkey has been
massing their troops and waiting.
Turkey says Iraq's central government, Kurdistan's
regional government, and the U.S. military have not
done enough to crack down on Kurdish rebel bases
inside Iraq. In the past week, 12 Turkish troops
were killed in attacks blamed on militants of the
Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK. More than 30,000
people have died in the conflict since the PKK began
its separatist campaign in 1984.
Thousands of Turkish troops have moved toward the
Iraqi Kurdistan border and set-up special security
zones that restrict movement in Turkey's border
areas.
In Iraqi Kurdish villages near Turkey, there is
worry of a Turkish invasion similar to 1997, the
last time large numbers of Turkish forces crossed
the border to fight the PKK. Turkey says the PKK
uses mountain hideouts and friendly villages in
northern Iraq to train and re-supply.
This woman in Dashati Takhe village, near the border
city Zakho says the shelling has forced many people
to leave their homes and seek shelter in the city.
She says she asks the Iraqi government to stop this.
She says it is hard for the families here and we
need to live in peace.
On Saturday, Iraqi officials in Baghdad summoned a
Turkish diplomat and lodged an official complaint,
claiming the military had shelled areas of Duhok and
Erbil province and warning cross-border attacks
could destabilize the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday
also warned Turkey, saying a "robust" movement of
troops across the border would not be good for Iraq
or Turkey.
voanews 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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