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Iraqi PM to visit Turkey post elections
20.7.2007 |
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Among
the issues that will be covered by the talks will be
the continued presence of the Kurdish rebel group
PKK inside Iraqi Kurdistan
July
20, 2007
Iraq’s Prime Minister will come to Turkey soon after
the general election to discuss all the difficulties
in relations between Baghdad and Ankara, Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Thursday.
Gul, on the campaign trail in his home town of
Kayeseri in central Turkey, told a press conference
that the talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
would have the objective of consolidating the
friendly relations between the two countries.
During the press conference Gul highlighted one of
the issues of contention between Ankara and Baghdad,
that of US arms finding their way into the hands of
members of the PKK rebel group, which believed has
bases in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq). |
Turkey Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül |
"After some terrorists were arrested, security
forces seized their weapons,” Gul said. “When we
investigate the place of origin of those weapons, we
saw that some of them were manufactured by the
United States.
US officials told us that those were the weapons
they handed over to the Iraqi army. Everybody tries
to contribute to strengthen the Iraqi army.
For instance, we have undertaken training of Iraqi
officers. The United States donated some weapons to
the Iraqi army with good will. However, PKK rebels
got these weapons somehow.
Kurdistani 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).
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"
ntvmsnbc.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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