|
Interview: Top PKK official warns military
action against Kurds
11.8.2007
By Sherzad Shelshani
|
|
|
|
We
believe that the solution to Kurdish issue in Turkey
cannot be found in [Iraqi Kurdistan's capital]
Erbil, or in Baghdad, but in Diyarbakir the largest
mainly Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey.
August
11, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
From his hideout in Kurdistan border mountains
(northern Iraq), a top official of the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) has warned Turkey it will come
off second best if it launches a cross-border
offensive against his group.
Abdul Rahman Chadarchi (Jadarji), a member of the PKK's
'diplomatic commission' in an interview with AKI
also said he hoped Iraq's prime minister would
renege a pledge made to Ankara to curb the PKK's
presence in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
"We are based in our motherland. Kurdistan is one
nation which has been fragmented by its enemies. The
current borders are artificial and we don't
recognise them," said Jadarji whose group has for
more than two decades battled Ankara to win
secession for southeastern Turkey's ethnic Kurdish
areas. |
Abdul Rahman Chadarchi (Jadarji), Top PKK official.
The PKK took up arms for self-rule in the country's
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey. Turkey is home
to over 25 million ethnic Kurds |
Jadarji was speaking from a PKK base near Mount
Qandil in Iraqi Kurdistan from where the group has
launched cross-border attacks against Turkish
targets.
Jadarji's remarks came in the wake of Iraqi prime
minister Nuri al-Maliki's visit to Ankara on
Wednesday when for the first time he described the
PKK as a 'terrorist' group - a definition long used
by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
"The Iraqi government is being put under Turkish
pressure, as have several other countries in the
region," he said.
"However, we hope that Prime Minister al-Maliki will
join Iraqi president Jalal Talabani (an ethnic Kurd)
and the president of the Kurdistan region Massoud
Barzani who are against military solutions for
political issues.
"We renew our call to the al-Maliki government not
to capitulate to Turkey's unjust position", Jadarji
said.
"We don't want to harm the interests of our people
in Iraqi Kurdistan nor those of Iraq with Turkey,
even if we believe that the solution to Kurdish
issue in Turkey cannot be found in [Iraqi
Kurdistan's capital] Erbil, or in Baghdad, but in
Diyarbakir," he said referring to the largest mainly
Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey.
Jadarji was also commented on the recent
parliamentary elections in Turkey which saw prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted
Justice and Development Party (AKP) score a
comfortable victory, and also the election of
several Kurdish candidates.
In contrast to his secularist predecessors, Erdogan
has made some overtures to Turkey's Kurds,
acknowledging the existence of a "Kurdish question".
It is an opening Jadarji acknowledges, but the PKK
official also said the Turkish prime minister had
tarnished his reputation by making "racist an
extremely nationalist" remarks following last
month's elections.
Erdogan renewed his threat of military intervention,
including cross-border operations, against the PKK ,
which Ankara accuses of killing some 50 Turkish
soldiers in attacks this year.
Jadarji welcomed the election of the Kurdish
candidates to the Turkish parliament, describing it
as a "great national achievement".
"They (the Kurdish MPs) are democrats who have
entered the Turkish parliament thanks to efforts and
the struggle of our party, to whom they have assured
their commitment to resolving the Kurdish question".
The PKK also supported the role of Kurdish civil
society groups in Turkey which Jardarji said were
doing much to promote Kurdish rights.
"From the beginning the PKK was a political party
and we only took up arms when we were forced to do
so to defend our people. If a political solution is
reached then we will no longer need the arms ",
Jadarji concluded.
The PKK was founded in the 1970s and is committed to
the creation of an independent socialist Kurdish
state in a territory which it claims as Kurdistan,
an area that comprises parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria
and Iran.
adnkronos com
**
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
|
® 