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Cross-Border operations damage Turkey's
economy
4.1.2008
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Acar of the Erbil Business people's Association
says: "Violence is affecting economic relations,
this is to Turkey's detriment. There are people on
both sides feeding from violence." Acar called on
the Turkish government and the media to stop seeing
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional
administration, as an enemy.
January 4, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq',--,
"We do not know what the government's "Package for
the Solution of the Kurdish Question" is. The only
things we have seen so far are military operations
and violence. This issue will not be solved with
violence; only Kurds can get rid of the Turkey's PKK.
That this will only be possible if there is a
political solution must be accepted."
This is how Ahmet Acar, president of the
Businesspeople's Association in Erbil, the Iraqi
Kurdistan's capital sees the current relations
between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan region;www.ekurd.net
he argues that the
operations carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces
are reducing the economic activity of Turkey in the
region.
Other countries taking over
Acar said that people in the Kurdistan regional
administration were not being affected by the
operations, and that the places of Turks leaving the
area were being taken by businesspeople from
countries like China, Japan and South Korea.
"The average annual income of a person in the region
is around 10,000 dollars. Education and health
services are quite developed. The country really
being damaged by the policy of violence is Turkey."
According to Acar, many companies from Turkey are
active in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq',
primarily in the building industry, but also in
areas like textile production and bread factories:
"According to data from 2006, there were around
15,000 workers and nearly 200 companies from all
over Turkey in the region.
Investment considered "treachery" by Turkey
Although, so Acar, the Kurdish regional
administration did not exert any pressure on Turkish
companies, these companies were labelled as
"traitors" by Turkey and withdrew.
According to data from the Erbil Chamber of
Commerce, 23 Turkish companies stopped working in
the area in the first two weeks of October.
According to the Turkish Contractors' Union,
companies from Turkey have earned around five
billion dollars in Iraq since 2003. However, Tahir
Telllioglu, both deputy president of the Turkish
Federation of Construction Contractors and president
of the Ankara Construction Contractors' Association,
has said: "Contractors should leave Iraq
immediately. As of today, whoever puts one stone
onto another in Iraq is betraying their country."
Acar said that it was widely believed in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq' that the pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP) of Turkey would not be able to
take steps towards a solution of the Turkey's
Kurdish question. He added, "The DTP MPs were not
given this opportunity. There are people both in
Turkey and in the Kurdish movement who are profiting
from the policy of violence, and the DTP has not
been able to distance itself from these sections."
Union of parties
Acar pointed out that there were Kurds participating
in politics without resorting to policies of
violence; he announced that the Participant Society
Party (KADEP), which he is a founding member of, and
the Rights and Freedoms Party (HAK-PAR), both
parties in Turkey, would unite in the near future.
"We demand a federal, liberal and democratic
solution to the Kurdish question. We reject violence
coming from any quarter."
Acar called on the government and the media to stop
seeing Massoud Barzani,www.ekurd.net
president of the
Kurdistan regional administration, as an enemy. It
was, he said, important to develop relations with
Barzani:
"There are millions of Kurds living in Turkey, and
these people have relatives and contacts in that
region. The (ruling) Justice and Development Party (AKP)
must see what effect its hostile policy towards
Northern Iraq is having on these people."
bianet org
**
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, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community 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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