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Kurdish MP Mahmoud Othman says U.S. to
take Turkey's side if it strikes Iraqi Kurdista
16.7.2007
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July
16, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- An
Iraqi Kurdish lawmaker believes that if Turkey wages
a military strike against Iraqi Kurdistan, the
United States will take the side of its friend
Turkey at the expense of the Kurds.
"Turkey is a strategic and long-time ally of the
United States and a member of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), while the Kurds have
been allies of the U.S. for some time," Mahmoud
Othman, a member of the Kurdistan Coalition (KC),
the second largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament with
55 seats, said.
He said, "Our experience as Kurds with the United
States has been negative all along and that is why
our fears and concerns are legitimate."
Othman, however, said current Turkish escalations on
the mutual borders with Iraq have to do with the
parliamentary elections in Turkey, scheduled be held
in less than 10 days. |
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, member of the
Kurdistan National Democratic Union |
"The army and opposition secularist parties have
their fears about the success of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his moderate Islamic
Justice and Development Party (AKP), and that is why
they want to embarrass the Erdogan government by
obtaining a decision on the invasion against the
will of Erdogan's party, which makes up the majority
in parliament," said Othman.
He said the Iraqi government has trade relations
with Turkey worth billions of dollars and the Iraqi
Kurdistan government controls about 300 km on the
Turkish borders. Moreover, he said, the United
States, which considers imprisoned leader Abdullah
Ocalana's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to be a
terrorist organization, does not wish to see Turkey
launching a military operation, not to mention the
opposition expressed by the European Union (EU).
He did not belittle the Turkish threats though.
"The threats are serious and we have our concerns.
Turkey, for more than a century, has had a negative
policy towards the Kurdish people in Turkey. It does
not recognize them, despite the fact that Kurds
number 25-30 million. Kurdish birth rates are higher
than the Turkish and to some extent this is very
similar to the case of the Palestinians versus the
Israelis," said Othman.
VOI
** Ankara is anxious to prevent the emergence of a
Kurdish state in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq),
fearing this could fan separatism among its own
large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey .
Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a Kurdish
separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to invade
Kurdistan region (Iraq) to prevent the establishment
of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish autonomous region
in (northern Iraq).
** 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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