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Tensions on Iraqi Kurdistan-Turkey border
send residents packing
28.8.2007
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August
28, 2007
SHARANSH, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- A year
after he fled Baghdad for the safe haven of his
father's hometown in Kurdistan region on Iraq's
northern border, Emmanuel is packing his bags again,
fearful of a Turkish strike against Kurdish PKK
rebels.
A Christian Iraqi, 43-year-old Emmanuel was born and
raised in Baghdad where he lived and managed a
liquor store that has been in the family for
decades, until he received death threats from
Islamist insurgents.
Along with his wife, the father-of-two left the
violent southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora for
Sharansh, a Christian village nestled in the
mountains of Iraq's relatively tranquil autonomous
Kurdistan region.
"Who would have imagined that after having left
Baghdad -- its car bombs and the violence tearing it
apart -- I would have to search once again for a new
safe haven," said Emmanuel, who declined to give his
full name.
"Even this beautiful village is no longer safe," he
said, as he gazed over the mountains towering over
Sharansh, its orange groves, walnut trees and water
springs, 500 kilometers (310 miles) away from the
madness of Baghdad.
In recent weeks, dozens of Christian families like
Emmanuel's that fled Baghdad and other embattled
Iraqi cities for towns in Kurdistan, have taken to
the road again to escape Turkish threats to hunt
down Kurdish PKK rebels.
In June, Iraq complained Turkey had bombarded
targets in its northern Kurdistan region, which has
for decades been a safe haven for the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), which fights for the
independence of Turkey's Kurds.
The foreign ministry charged at the time that
Turkish shelling targeted villages in Duhok
province, near Sharansh.
"Several shells crashed in the vicinity of Sharansh.
The situation is tense," said Emmanuel.
"The Turkish army has massed troops on the borders.
People are afraid and I don't want to wake up one
morning and find Turkish soldiers all around us. So
I will leave."
Turkey says the PKK, considered a terrorist group by
Ankara, Washington and EU, enjoys free movement in
northern Iraq, where it obtains weapons and
explosives.
Ankara has accused the forces of Massoud Barzani,
the president of autonomous Kurdistan region, of
providing the PKK with weapons, and has threatened a
a cross-border operation to strike at PKK bases in
the region.
Officially, Turkey does not recognise the regional
government of Kurdistan led by president Massoud
Barzani. Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved
self-rule in part of the country. Today's teenagers
are the first generation to grow up under Kurdish
rule. Kurdistan region has all the trappings of an
independent state -- its own constitution, its own
parliament, its own flag, its own army, its own
border patrol, its own national anthem, its own
education system, even its own stamp inked into the
passports of visitors.
Iraqi Kurdistan 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) fearing this
could fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
But earlier this month the prime ministers of
Turkey and Iraq signed a cooperation document
to end the safe haven the PKK rebels enjoy in Iraqi
Kurdistan.
The agreement came amid warnings from Washington
that a Turkish incursion in Kurdistan (northern
Iraq) would destabilise a relatively peaceful region
of that already troubled country. The Iraqi Kurds
are the strongest allies the US has in the area.
"We said that we will cooperate against terrorist
organisations, notably the PKK," Iraqi premier Nuri
al-Maliki said at a joint press conference with his
Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
But observers in Ankara cast doubt over the
embattled Maliki's capacity to persuade the Iraqi
Kurds to act against the PKK, whose campaign since
1984 for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast
Turkey has resulted in more than 37,000 deaths.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
According to Turkish army between 2,800 and 3,100
PKK rebels are based in northern Iraq.
Turkey also suspects Iraqi Kurds of harbouring
designs to break away from Baghdad and set up their
independent state which, it fears, would embolden
the PKK.
Emmanuel's concerns are also shared by Iraqi Kurds
across the region who used to spend weekends and
summer holidays in Sharansh to escape the heat and
bustle of cities in the area.
"Last month I came with my family to Sharansh on
vacation but one day we heard the noise of exploding
shells, so we decided to return home to Zakho," said
Hajji Hassan, referring to the largest Kurdish city
in Duhok province.
"We used to come to Sharansh on the weekends and for
summer holidays to escape the noise and the heat of
the city.
Now we are afraid," he said.
Iraqi Kurdish lawmaker Dr Mahmud Othman insisted
that tensions facing the region must be resolved
through "peaceful dialogue not by force."
Turkey, he said, "must acknowledge that Kurds have
rights, and open a dialogue with the PKK to put an
end to a conflict that has lasted for decades."
Othman also criticised the
agreement signed on August 7 between
the Turkish and Iraqi prime ministers, branding it
"a huge mistake that should have not happened."
"Turkey has been committing the crime of terrorism
against the Kurdish people since almost 100 years
and isn't granting them their rights" Othman said.
AFP
**
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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