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Iraq tells Turkey to respect borders after
shelling Kurdistan
22.2.2008
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February 22, 2008
BAGHDAD, -- Turkey should respect Iraq's
borders and avoid military confrontation, Iraq's
prime minister was quoted as saying early today,
hours after Kurdish officials said
Turkey had shelled Kurdistan
'northern Iraq'.
The Turkish military bombed Turkish Kurdish PKK
rebel positions in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'
yesterday,www.ekurd.net
the officials said, days
after Ankarasaid it was weighing a ground operation
against the guerrillas.
In a phone call to his Turkish counterpart, Iraqi
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Turkey's Tayyip
Erdogan that Iraq considered the rebels a threat to
their shared border, but urged dialogue to promote
security.
''Maliki asked Erdogan to respect the sovereignty of
Iraq's borders and inviolability of its lands... and
stressed the importance of avoiding a military
solution,'' Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh
said in a statement.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and his Turkish
counterpart Abdullah Gul also held a phone
conversation Thursday on the situation in Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq'.
President Jalal Talabani held phone conversation
with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul Thursday at a
time tension prevails on the common border line. Gul
asserted in the phone call Turkey's desire to boost
relations with Iraq and invited Talabani to visit
Turkey, a statement by the president's office said. |
Jalal Talabani (R) Iraq's president, Abdullah Gul,
Turkish president
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (R), Turkish
prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan |
Gul told Talabani that military operations against
the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) aimed at
retaliating against the outlawed party for its
killings of innocent people inside Turkey.
Gul said Turkey sought to strengthen economic
relations with Iraqi Kurds. Talabani, said the
statement, said Iraq understood the nature of
situation between Turkey and PKK.
Turkey has massed tens of thousands of troops along
its frontier with Iraqi Kurdistan and has carried
out several small-scale cross-border commando
operations and aerial bombing raids against the
Turkish outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
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', Turkey fears this could fan separatism among its own
large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
''Maliki also said the Iraqi government supports the
security and stability of Turkey and considers the
PKK a terrorist organisation that represents a
threat to Turkey and the border areas between the
two countries,'' Dabbagh continued.
A spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga security
forces Jabbar Yawar yesterday said the Turkish
military had shelled several Kurdish rebel positions
in a remote mountainous area.
Turkish planes then later staged attacks near
Amadiya,www.ekurd.net
close to the Turkish
border in Kurdish Duhok province, for three hours
but it was not clear what the targets were. Yawar
said no casualties were reported.
A senior Iraqi border official said Turkish troops
tried to move tanks from a base in northern Iraq,
but Peshmerga forces had told them to stay in the
compound.
Turkey has kept small contingents of troops at
several bases in northern Iraq since offensives in
the 1990s.
Over 39,000 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. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish
PKK rebels.
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, ranting them full
political freedoms.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by
the U.S. and the EU.
Information for this report was provided by Reuters
| Kuna net.kw | 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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