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The news clashed over Turkish troops
withdrawal from Iraqi Kurdistan
29.2.2008
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CNN Turk TV: "only troops who have completed their
mission are returning home"
February 29, 2008
BAGHDAD - Turkish forces have ended their
week-old offensive against Turkish-Kurdish-PKK
rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan region and begun pulling
out of the region, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar
Zebari said Friday.
There was no immediate confirmation from Ankara,
although some Turkish media reported that the
incursion to flush out separatist fighters from the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was over.
"Turkey ended its military operation today morning
and has started withdrawing its troops," Zebari told
AFP. |
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari |
"We welcome this move.
We have always maintained that there are other ways
to end PKK terrorism," he said.
The Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
spokesman Ahmed Danis said
earlier that Turkish troops had started a
"limited" withdrawal
from the Zap region along the border.
Turkish television footage showed dozens of military
trucks loaded with soldiers crossing into Turkey
from the border town of Cukurca,www.ekurd.net
while empty vehicles
were seen climbing mountainous roads in the
opposition direction.
Turkey
launched a ground offensive
on February 21 to flush out PKK guerrillas hiding in
Kurdistan's mountainous terrain.
An unnamed military source, however,www.ekurd.net
told CNN Turk television
that "only troops who have completed their mission
are returning home" -- suggesting that other forces
might stay inside Iraq.
The Turkish army said it would make a statement
later in the day.
Turkey has come under growing US and Iraqi pressure
in recent days to withdraw from the region.
The incursion was the second within three months.
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 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.
Iraqi Kurdistan politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group (Kurdish
freedom fighters) 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.
AFP | 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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