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Turkish PM can't predict end of Iraqi
Kurdistan offensive
14.1.2008
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January
14, 2008
MADRID, -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he cannot predict when
his country's offensive against Turkey's Kurdish PKK
guerrillas in neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan region,
which began in mid-December, will end.
"We hope that this fight against terrorism will end
soon but we don't know how much longer it will
last," Erdogan told journalists in Madrid, where he
was meeting with Spanish counterpart Jose Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero.
"In Afghanistan there are foreign forces fighting
against terrorism and they also can't say how long
they will have to be there," he added, speaking via
a Spanish interpreter.
In October Turkey's parliament voted overwhelmingly
to authorise the country's military to send troops
into the mountainous terrain of Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq' to confront Turkey's Kurdish rebels in
hide-outs there.
The authorisation is valid until October 2008 and
Erdogan said if the fighting is not over by then,
"we will seek approval for the following year."
Erdogan said Turkey's sole aim was to eliminate the
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK rebels, adding
every effort was being made to spare civilians.
Some 4,000 "terrorists" were being trained in the
region, he estimated.
"Our only objective is to eliminate the terrorists,"
the prime minister said.www.ekurd.net
"We have the technology
and the intelligence to do this without hurting
civilians."
Over the past month Turkish military aircraft have
regularly carried out bombing runs inside Iraq in an
attempt to flush out PKK fighters.
Iraqi Kurdistan politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's 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',www.ekurd.net
Turkey fears this could
fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
Since 1984 the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
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.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
Erdogan is in Spain to take part in a two-day
gathering of world leaders and personalities that
gets under way Tuesday in Madrid to launch a United
Nations forum aimed at combating fear and suspicion
between different cultures.
The PKK, listed as a "terrorist" group by Ankara, US
and EU.
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, 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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