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Turkish PM issues new threat to invade Iraqi
Kurdistan after elections
20.7.2007 |
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July
20, 2007
Ankara, Turkey, -- Turkey's prime minister
has threatened the country could stage an incursion
into Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) if talks with
Iraq and the United States after Sunday's general
elections fail to produce effective measures against
Kurdish PKK guerrillas there, media reports said
Friday.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was expected
to visit Turkey after the elections to discuss
Turkey's demand that Baghdad crackdown on guerrillas
of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in Kurdistan
(northern Iraq).
The group has been using Iraqi soil as a base to
launch attacks on Turkey, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan told private ATV television on
Thursday night.
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
Erdogan's ruling party is likely to win a majority
of seats in parliamentary elections Sunday.
Opposition parties have criticized his government
for not showing determination to stage an incursion
into Iraq, a move which could seriously strain ties
with Iraq and the United States.
«After the elections, we will see him (al-Maliki)
here and hold trilateral talks (including U.S.
officials). We have to get the result we expected
here. Otherwise, we will decide on the method of
dealing with this with relevant institutions,»
Erdogan said.
Turkey has massed troops on the Iraqi Kurdistan
border and threatened to move into the Kurdish
region (northern Iraq) unless Iraq and the United
States cracks down on the PKK, listed as a terrorist
organization by Washington. Iraq on Wednesday
complained that Turkish artillery and warplanes
bombarded areas of northern Iraq and called on
Turkey to stop military operations and enter
dialogue.
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.
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).
Asked whether a cross-border offensive would come to
the agenda after the elections, Erdogan said:
«Anything can happen. It could come to the agenda.
Whatever is necessary could be done immediately. We
are capable enough to do it.
«If this has to be done, it would be done,» Erdogan
said.
On Tuesday, a key leader of Kurdish PKK separatists
said a Turkish cross-border attack into Iraqi
Kurdistan would be a
"strategic mistake"
and called for talks to end more than two decades of
fighting. Abdul Rahman Chaderchi, a senior official
of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), said a strike
into Kurdistan "northern Iraq" would unite Kurds on
either side of the border against Turkey and bring
Turkish troops face-to-face with U.S. forces
stationed in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq).
The government needs to endorse Parliament's
approval for any cross-border operation. And at
least two other parties Republican People's Party
and Nationalist Action Party which are expected to
win seats in Sunday's elections strongly favor an
incursion.
The issue how to deal with the PKK has been one of
the key campaign topics of all major parties with
opposition parties favoring a tougher stand and
almost all rejecting dialogue with Kurdish lawmakers
who are expected to return to Parliament in Sunday's
elections for the first time since the 1990s unless
they openly renounce the PKK as a terrorist
organization.
In 1990s, several Kurdish lawmakers were ejected
from Parliament for ties to Kurdish rebels.
«There can be no dialogue with those who do not
renounce the PKK as a terrorist organization,» Deniz
Baykal, leader of the Republican People's Party,
told private NTV television on Thursday night.
«There can be no consensus as long as weapons are on
the table or near the table.
Erdogan, whose government has come under pressure
from furious Turks who chanted anti-rebel and
sometimes anti-government slogans during the
funerals of more than 70 soldiers so far this year,
has also ruled out cooperation with the Kurdish
lawmakers unless they declared the PKK a terrorist
group.
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP,
which is running all of its candidates as
independents with the aim of circumventing a
10-percent vote threshold required for parties to
win representation in Parliament. The lawmakers
would then regroup under the party banner after the
election.
On the street there is enormous support for a
cross-border operation especially among young
nationalist Turks but some others fear that an
incursion could drag Turkey into war.
«I will never support an incursion, don't they
realize that staging an offensive would mean to
going to war with Iraq?», said Sukru Taner, a
47-year-old taxi driver. «We should try to finish
off the PKK inside our borders first.
AP | Reuters
** 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 25 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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