|
Iraqi prime minister visits Turkey
7.8.2007
|
|
|
|
August 7, 2007
Ankara, -- Iraqi prime minister arrived
Turkey on Tuesday for a on a one-day visit for talks
on fighting Kurdish PKK separatist guerrillas who
use Iraqi Kurdistan mountains (northern Iraq) as a
base.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insisted that
his government was not supporting the separatist
Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
"Our visit is an effort to develop bilateral
relations and cooperation with Turkey, especially
regarding the security file, which is the most
important one," he told The A.P in an interview on
his plane before landing in Ankara.
"The PKK is an illegal terrorist organization, and
the Turks are accusing them of terrorism. We don't
allow for any terrorist organization on our soil,"
he said. "We want good relations with our neighbor,
Turkey, and we should not interfere in each other's
internal affairs."
Al-Maliki was greeted at the airport in Ankara by
Turkey's Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen. The Iraqi
delegation included Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani,
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and some Iraqi
legislators. |
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (L) and his
Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki pose for media
during a welcome ceremony in Ankara August 7, 2007.
Maliki arrived in Turkey on Tuesday Reuters |
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was
expected to warn al-Maliki against allowing the PKK
rebels to shelter in Iraq. Turkey has threatened to
stage a cross-border offensive to eradicate the
Kurdish rebel bases if Iraq or the United States do
not act against the rebels.
Al-Maliki will likely seek to dissuade Turkey from
launching an incursion.
Ankara has boosted troop levels in its southeast
region to more than 200,000, many of them along the
border with Iraqi Kurdistan, to try to prevent
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels crossing into
Turkey to attack military targets.
The United States and the Baghdad government,
alarmed by the Turkish troop buildup along the
border, have urged Ankara to avoid any military
action that could destabilise Iraq's relatively
peaceful Kurdistan region on the north. The Iraqi
Kurds are the strongest allies the US has in the
area.
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
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.
Erdogan will also urge Maliki on Tuesday to postpone
a planned referendum on the future of ethnically
divided Kirkuk* . Turkey opposes plans by Iraqi
Kurds to make the oil-rich city the capital of their
Kurdistan autonomous region. Ankara fears that if
the oil-rich Kirkuk joins Kurdistan, the Kurds will
have the economic foundation they need for an
independent state.
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.
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).
Turkey recently reinforced its troops on the Iraqi
Kurdistan border, and the military said it was
waiting for government orders to move in. Turkey's
parliament must endorse any cross-border military
offensive
Al-Maliki planned to visit Iran on Wednesday.
AP | Reuters
*
Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be
held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
**
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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 