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Turkey's former foreign minister calls for
dialogue with Iraqi Kurds
21.1.2008
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January
21, 2008
Ankara, -- Turkey should further normalize
its relations with neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan and
begin formal contacts with the Iraqi Kurds, who run
a semi-autonomous region in the country's north,a
former Turkish foreign minister has said.
"A regional government in northern Iraq has been
established in line with the Iraqi constitution. I
don't understand why there is no formal contact with
its officials," Ilter Türkmen, a former foreign
minister who is now a columnist for the Hürriyet
daily, told the Anatolia news agency on Sunday.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has also
never been invited to Turkey despite repeated
assurances from President Gül and government
leaders. "We speak to the Iraqi prime minister but
not the president. This is not understandable,"
Türkmen said. "Turkey's Iraq policy is not so
bright," Türkmen said, claiming that Turkey's policy
of supporting the Turkmens, a small group with close
ethnic ties with Turkey, was also misguided. "We
failed to appropriately diagnose the situation
there," he said.
Commenting on Turkish-US relations, which have
improved after Washington began to effectively
cooperate with Ankara against the Turkey's PKK
rebels in Iraq, Türkmen acknowledged the recovery
but called for caution, saying the ties were still
fragile. "There could be undesired developments any
time. And we have a very sensitive public ready to
change its perceptions towards the negative," he
said.
On the troubled process of accession to the European
Union the former minister was pessimistic, saying he
expected no progress in 2008 and criticizing the
government's hesitation to change Article 301 of the
Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which the EU says
restricts freedom of speech.
Türkmen also called for legal amendments to open the
way for prosecutors reporting to the Justice
Ministry as a way of improving Turkey's human rights
records. "Judges must be independent, but
prosecutors must be attached to the Justice
Ministry," he said, noting that this is the practice
in most of Europe and the United States.
Comparing his term as foreign minister to today's
foreign policy circumstances, Türkmen admitted that
foreign policy was more difficult than during the
Cold War period, when there were fewer crises, less
risk and fewer opportunities. "There are more risks
today and more opportunities," he said.
Turkey has never, and still does not, recognize the
Kurdistan region government (KRG) and refuses to
meet with its representatives in any official
capacity.www.ekurd.net
That reflects Ankara's
fear that any international respect shown to the
autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region would only
embolden Turkey's own large Kurdish minority to seek
similar home-rule status.
Since Dec. 16 last
year, Turkish warplanes bombed the PKK's hideouts in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' with the help of
intelligence provided by U.S. military personnel.
The Turkish military has recently launched several
cross-border attacks to fight against separatist PKK
rebels, who use Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' as a
launch pad for attacks against Turkey.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 soldiers in its
southeast near the Iraqi Kurdistan border, and in
October the Ankara government secured a one-year
parliamentary authorisation for cross-border
military action to hunt down Turkish Kurdish PKK
rebels.
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.
The PKK, listed as a "terrorist" group by Ankara, US
and EU.
Todayszaman com | Agencies
**
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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