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Turkish PM signals opposition to Iraq attack
12.6.2007 |
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June
12, 2007
ANKARA, June 12, -- Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday indicated he would
resist calls from the influential military for an
incursion into neighbouring Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq) to pursue Turkish Kurd rebels taking
refuge there.
Speaking ahead of a high-level security meeting to
be attended by the army chief, Erdogan stressed
military options should be "the last thing to do"
and said he was planning talks with his Iraqi
counterpart Nuri al-Maliki.
Ankara, he said, is currently concentrating on
fighting rebels who are on Turkish territory.
"There are 5,000 terrorists in the mountains in
Turkey. Is the struggle against them over? Is this
issue resolved so that we can come to dealing with
the 500 terrorists in northern Iraq?" Erdogan was
quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
Chief of general staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, has
several times said that a cross-border operation was
needed to clamp down on bases of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 'northern Iraq',
where, officials say, the rebels also obtain weapons
and explosives for attacks in Turkey.
"If such a thing is necessary, it is not announced
by drum and horn," Erdogan said.
"Keeping this on the agenda can have a serious
impact on our ties with Iraq."
He said he was planning to invite Maliki to Ankara
in the coming days.
"What matters is to find a solution by negotiating
at the table. Those other things that are being
debated are the last things to consider and do," he
insisted.
Erdogan explained the figures he gave for PKK
militants in Turkey and Iraq were not official, but
just "examples", Anatolia reported.
Military officials have earlier said that most PKK
members -- between 3,500 and 3,800 -- are based in
Kurdistan mountains (northern Iraq), with up to
2,000 others in Turkey.
They have also accused Iraqi Kurds, who run northern
Iraq, of tolerating and even supporting the PKK,
listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of
the international community.
A Turkish incursion into northern Iraq is strongly
opposed by both Baghdad and Washington, wary over
fresh turmoil in the already conflict-ravaged
country.
Later Tuesday, Erdogan was to preside over a meeting
between senior government and military officials to
discuss
measures against the PKK.
The meeting, scheduled for 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), was
to be attended by Buyukanit as well as the foreign
and interior ministers.
On Monday, thousands of people chanted
anti-government slogans at the funerals of three
soldiers killed by the PKK, putting pressure on
Ankara to toughen its stance against the insurgents
ahead of general elections on July 22.
The army has launched a large-scale crackdown
against the PKK in Turkey's east and southeast since
the arrival of spring when the rebels usually step
up attacks as melting snow facilitates their
movement in the mountains.
The conflict has claimed the lives of 56 members of
the security forces and 74 PKK militants this year,
according to army figures.
Seven civilians were killed in May when a suicide
bomber, believed to be a Kurdish militant, blew
himself up at a busy shopping centre in Ankara.
The PKK Tuesday offered a ceasefire if Ankara agreed
to end army operations against the group, the Firat
news agency, a PKK mouthpiece, reported.
"If the operations cease, the tensions will also
cease... If the government wants to decrease the
tensions and hold the elections in a secure climate,
the only way for it is to stop the military's
attacks," it said.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since the
PKK took up arms in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in
the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey .
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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