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Turkey not ruling out military response to
Kurdish PKK rebels
12.7.2007 |
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July
12, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- Iraqi Kurdish leaders are
arming rebels with US-made weapons for attacks
inside Turkey, the Turkish ambassador said here
Wednesday, warning that Ankara could not rule out a
military response.
Ambassador Nabi Sensoy confirmed "an ongoing
movement" of Turkish forces along the border with
Iraqi Kurdistan in response to the activity by the
PKK, a Kurdish separatist group.
"On the one hand, this is part of ... normal
precautions being taken within our borders," he
said. "But of course, I cannot say Turkey would be
able to rule out any alternative in the fight
against the terrorists."
The ambassador, speaking to defense reporters here,
would not comment on reports by Iraqi officials that
Turkey has amassed 140,000
troops along the border.
But he said the Turkish leadership and public were
"to the brink of our patience" over the situation.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the US
military had no evidence the Turks were massing
forces in those numbers along the border but said an
incursion "would be very unhelpful."
"The United States government certainly recognizes
the PKK threat that exists for the Turkish
government and the Turkish people," he said.
"We've also made it clear that any sort of military
action into Iraq would be very unhelpful," he told
reporters.
Sensoy accused Massoud Barzani, president of the
autonomous Kurdistan government in "northern Iraq",
and his forces of providing supplies and safe haven
to the PKK.
"We have enough information to prove that Barzani
forces, and as a leader Barzani himself in the
north, (are) not only providing safe haven to the
terrorists and the terrorist organization, but also
providing logistical support -- food and other
means, weapons, ammunitions, explosives which are
being used by the terrorist organizations in their
operations," he said.
Weapons of US origin had been recovered from the PKK,
he said.
"We know the United States is supplying arms to the
northern Iraqi administration, and it is just
possible that they are ending up in the hands of the
terrorist organizations," he said.
Sensoy said three-way US-Iraqi-Turkish meetings on
the issue had produced no results, and cooperation
from the Iraqi side has not been forthcoming.
He called on the Iraqis to declare the PKK a
terrorist organization to establish a legal basis
for halting its activities in Kurdistan (northern
Iraq), and urged Washington to exert its full
influence on its Kurdish allies.
"We cannot really rule out any form of fight against
the terrorist," he said.
"As I said emotions are running very high in Turkey,
and the government ... should really take into
consideration what the feelings of the people are,"
he added.
Sensoy said any Turkish intervention in Iraq "is not
going to be durable. We are not going there to stay,
if it does
happen."
"We are just speculating at this point whether
Turkey is going to intervene. It hasn't so far. It
might not in the future," he added.
"But it largely depends on developments in the
field. If this terrorist organization keeps on
killing Turkish people, eventually patience is going
to run out."
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 politicians 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).
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 United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
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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