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Turkish PM seeks US action against
separatist Kurdish PKK rebels
28.9.2007 |
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September 28, 2007
NEW YORK, -- Turkey's prime minister urged
the U.S. to act against Kurdish rebels who have
escalated attacks on his country from bases in
'Iraq', warning that continued inaction was harming
U.S. relations with its key Muslim ally.
Turkey has become increasingly frustrated with the
U.S. for failing to live up to promises to tackle
separatist guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers'
Party or PKK, who have been fleeing across the
border into Iraq's predominantly Kurdish northern
provinces. Turkey massed troops on its border with
Iraqi Kurdistan earlier this year, and officials are
debating whether to stage a military incursion.
"Our expectations are very clear on this point. The
Iraqi authorities and the U.S. must urgently take
concrete measures beyond simply paying lip service
... unfortunately so far we have not seen any
concrete steps," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations in
New York.
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
The U.S. considers the PKK a terrorist organization,
but officials have been reluctant to act for fear of
widening the Iraq conflict and increasing violence
in what has been Iraq's most stable region.
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. Turkey is home to over
25 million ethnic Kurds.
Relations have been strained between Washington and
Ankara for years, mostly over the Iraq war. Turkey,
a strategically important NATO ally, refused to
allow U.S. troops to use its territory to invade
Iraq in 2003 and a recent opinion poll found only 9%
of Turks had a favorable view of America.
Erdogan voiced support for a timeline on the
withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
"If coalition forces announce a timeline, then Iraqi
forces will take responsibility ... if there's a
timeline and training they'll take control," he
said.
The issue of a troop withdrawal has been a big
factor internationally and in the U.S., where
support for the war has largely dissipated, leaving
President George W. Bush struggling to make a case
for a continued U.S. troop presence in the country.
Bush administration and U.S. military officials have
said while Iraqi forces are making some gains, they
are not yet ready to assume full security
responsibilities.
Erdogan also reiterated strong opposition to a U.S.
congressional resolution introduced in January that
would recognize the killings of Armenians in the
early 1900s as genocide.
Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were
killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War
I, an event widely viewed by genocide scholars as
the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey,
however, denies the deaths constituted genocide,
saying that the toll has been inflated and that
those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
The United Nations has not recognized the killings
as a genocide.
Similar resolutions have been introduced in the U.S.
before, but were always kept from a full vote by
congressional leaders.
The Bush administration has tried to quash the
current resolution because of pressure from Turkey.
"Should this draft reach the floor, and the Congress
of our ally pass a unilateral, political judgment of
no legal bearing on such a sensitive and
controversial issue which is directly related to my
country's national conscience, it will seriously
impair Turkish-American relations with wide- ranging
implications in our overall cooperation," said
Erdogan.
AP
* First world war
massacres | Related
issue:
Armenian Genocide by Turkish Muslims against
Christians
Turkey faces international pressure to recognise
that more than 1 million Armenians were massacred
during a 1915 campaign of ethnic cleansing by
Ottoman Turks. Turkish officials claim that most
deaths were caused by hunger and disease.
**
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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