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Civilians fearful as Turks move into Iraqi
Kurdistan
26.2.2008
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Kurdish civilian: 'I feel that we will die'
February 26, 2008
AMEDI, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Turkey says it is not targeting civilians as it
chases after Turkish Kurdish separatist PKK rebels
in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', but people in Iraq's
semiautonomous Kurdistan region say they've lived in
fear since the
incursion
began.
Some residents of this area roughly 30 kilometers
(18 miles) from the Iraqi Kurdistan-Turkey border
thought they'd escaped to a safe haven, having
abandoned homes closer to the border to avoid
skirmishes between the Turkish-Kurdistan Workers'
Party, or PKK, and Turkish troops.
But with the Turks mounting their first confirmed
ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion
in 2003, some say they are fearful of getting caught
in the deadly crossfire.
Already, the Turkish military says it has killed 153
rebels since fighting began last Thursday. Turks
fired barrage after barrage of artillery shells at
rebels Monday,www.ekurd.net
and its military said it
had hit some 30 targets in the last 24 hours. The
Turks have put their own death toll at 17; a funeral
service for three troops was held Monday.
"Whenever the children hear the military operations,
they feel frightened," said school headmaster Aoni
Mashaghti. "Most of the women came to school to take
their kids out. Whenever they hear any sound of
bombardment, the school becomes empty."
Hawzan Hussein, who lives in a community of about
160 families in the area, said people are worried
because some of the Turkish targets are so close to
their homes.
The explosions "have become a daily scene that
frightened me with the possibility of hitting our
house any time," the 25-year-old said.
AP Television News footage from the border area
showed Turkish tanks dug into barren hillsides, with
armored vehicles taking positions in towns.
The PKK wants autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish
southeastern Turkey (Turkey Kurdistan).
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.
Turkey has assured Iraq and the U.S. military that
the operation would be limited to attacks on rebels.
The U.S. and European Union consider the PKK a
terrorist group.
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 Iraqi government criticized the offensive on
Saturday.
"We know the threats that Turkey is facing, but
military operations will not solve the PKK problem,"
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
The rebels, meanwhile, warned they have a home court
advantage.
"We are using guerrilla fighting techniques and not
fighting as one fixed front," said Havaw Ruaj, a PKK
spokesman. The rebels are skilled at fighting in the
rocky mountainous area and changing their positions,
he said.
Massoud Barzani, President of the semiautonomous
Kurdistan region, warned Turkey would face
large-scale resistance if it targeted civilians in
its incursion.
Mohammad Mohsin, a senior official with the
Democratic Party of Kurdistan, also said the local
people "do not want to be part of this armed
dispute,www.ekurd.net
but our red line is when
the Turkish troops attack our secured villages and
our villagers," he said. "The people and the
(Kurdish militia) will attack them."
Kurdish demands have run the spectrum from self-rule
to more limited rights, such as increased freedom to
educate and broadcast in their language.
The Turkish government granted some cultural rights
to Kurds as part of its bid to join the European
Union. But many Kurds, who comprise 20 percent of
Turkey's population of 75 million, chafe under state
controls on freedom of expression.
The PKK started as a Marxist-Leninist group
demanding an independent homeland, but shed
socialist ideology with the end of the Cold War and
says it seeks some degree of self rule, similar to
that of Spain's semiautonomous Catalonia region.
Turkey had previously conducted air raids against
the PKK guerrillas in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'
since December, with the help of U.S. intelligence,
and it has periodically carried out so-called "hot
pursuits" in which small units sometimes spend only
a few hours inside Iraq.
Sitting in a cafe watching TV, Kamil Murad Khan said
he joined in a recent demonstration against the
Turkish forces, during which the Kurdish forces
surrounded the demonstrators.
"I feel the sympathy with PKK, because they are
Kurds like us," he said.
But others were less concerned with choosing sides,
than with surviving the incursion.
A 20-year-old woman who only identified herself as
Hawzan said fled to the border region from al-Qaida
in Iraq stronghold Mosul for fear of being killed.
Now Turkish tanks have become her neighbor.
"Whenever a Turkish soldier revs the engine of the
tank, I feel that we will die," she said. "My daily
view is the bombardment of the mountain behind us."
Turkey rejects direct talks with Iraqi Kurdistan
government, Officially, Turkey does not recognise
the regional government of Kurdistan led by
president Massoud Barzani.
Turkey has never, and still does not, recognize the
Iraqi Kurdistan region government (KRG) and refuses to
meet with its representatives in any official
capacity. 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.
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.
Analysts believe the Turkish raids inside Iraqi
Kurdistan region had a secondary purpose of
discouraging a referendum on Kirkuk city. Ankara
fears that if the oil-rich Kirkuk joins Kurdistan,
the Kurds will have the economic foundation they
need for an independent state.
AP | Agencies
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