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Turkey should accept autonomous Kurdistan
over independent Kurdistan
3.8.2007
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August 3, 2007
Washington, -- Turkey should accept the
concept of a semi-autonomous Kurdistan region within
a loosely united Iraq as an alternative to the
option: Kurds declaring an independent state, a
leading U.S. Democratic senator said Wednesday.
Addressing a panel at the National Press Club,
Delaware Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate's
influential Foreign Relations Committee and a
presidential hopeful for the 2008 elections, was
promoting his plan to divide Iraq into three
semi-autonomous areas among Shiites, Sunnis and
Kurds. His plan still calls for an umbrella Iraqi
state covering the three regions.
Asked if Turkey would buy a solution for a highly
decentralized Iraq, Biden predicted that the U.S.
military would not be able to stay in Iraq beyond
next summer.
He said what he feared most was not Iraq's division
into three parts, but its fragmentation into many
pieces along not only religious but also tribal
lines.
"The last thing Turkey needs is for ‘Kurdistan' to
declare its independence on the grounds that there's
no country to be part of," Biden said, adding that
Turks also knew this. |
Delaware senator and US presidential candidate Joe
Biden |
"I am not at liberty to tell you of my
conversations, but I assure you, they're (Turks are)
figuring it out," he said.
"It is much, much, much, much better for Turkey to
have a semi-autonomous Kurdistan region within a
united country than it is to have a united
‘Kurdistan' standing on its own," Biden said.
He said a regional war would break out if Kurds
declared independence.
"Turkey will move. You will see Iran move. You will
see chaos and you will see civil war metastasize
into the region," Biden said. "And you think we have
a problem now, wait until then."
He said some prominent ex-leaders, including former
secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeleine
Albright, also supported his plan to divide Iraq
into three semi-autonomous regions as a lesser evil.
Turkey sees the creation of an independent Kurdish
state as an existential issue, and does not
recognize the present Kurdistan administration led
by president Massoud Barzani in Iraq's north, called
the Kurdistan regional government.
Officially, Turkey does not recognise the regional
government of Kurdistan led by president Massoud
Barzani. The Iraqi Kurds are the strongest allies
the US has in the area.
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. Kurds
constitute about 20 percent of Turkey's more than 70
million people.
turkishdailynews com.tr |
Agencies
**
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.
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.
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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