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Iraqi Kurds vow to fight Turkey if
attacked
27.2.2008
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February 27, 2008
QIMARY, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Young Iraqi Kurds are vowing to take up arms and
defend their homes in Kurdistan region in 'northern
Iraq' as Turkish troops pressed on with their
assault on Wednesday to flush out Turkey's Kurdish
PKK guerrillas.
"The Turkish danger is looming large. They are
coming with their canons, guns and planes," said
Juthiar Khalil, 25, of Qimary village along the
border with Turkey as he sat with his friends around
a small stove in a grocery shop.
Khalil and his nine friends vowed they would defend
their homes if Turkish soldiers attacked them.
"We are ready to defend our villages. But we have
small arms and can't confront the tanks,www.ekurd.net
the canons and the
airplanes of Turkey unless the Kurdish government
helps us with heavy weapons. But we will defend
ourselves," he said.
Turkey has stepped up its offensive, saying 77
members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were
killed overnight in what it called the heaviest
clashes since troops stormed the snow-bound
mountains of northern Iraq last Thursday.
Khalil said his fellow Kurds in Turkey, where the
PKK has been fighting a deadly campaign for
self-rule since 1984, had a "right to live in
peace."
"They are also Kurds fighting the enemy everywhere
and they have a right to love in peace just like
others," said Khalil.
His village used to sit on the mountain just across
the border from Turkish villages but was rebuilt
after the 1991 Gulf war near the town of Zakho,www.ekurd.net
further from the
frontier.
Qimary, like other villages in this mountainous
terrain, often comes to a standstill during the
winter snows which cut off access to the main towns,
leaving the young men of the region busy chopping
wood collected in the summer.
"We are not supporting the PKK but we are supporting
them in their rights. But if we fight Turkey it
would be only to defend our land," said Ahmed Aouni,
19, one of the 10 young men clustered around the
stove.
"We hope the situation does not worsen. But we are
afraid the Turkish forces will attack our villages.
We will then be forced to defend ourselves and our
villages."
On Wednesday, a visiting Turkish envoy said in
Baghdada that Ankara would
not set a timetable to
withdraw troops until they have
destroyed the rebels' rear-bases.
In Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region,
the locals voiced weariness at the conflict that has
spanned nearly three decades.
"All that we dream of is to live in peace. We are
tired of these gunfights, explosions and daily
battles," said Hamma Saleh, 73.
"What will they gain from this war? It will lead to
only death, injuries and destruction."
Saleh said the Turkish incursion, which was launched
last Thursday, was inflicting extreme hardship on
the region.
"These days we have electricity only for two hours.
We are paying the price from these battles daily,"
he said.
Men, women and children could be seen out on the
streets of Erbil, a city of one million people, but
the underlying worry among the local people is
evident.
"The Turks are not just annoyed with the PKK but
with everything related to Kurds. It is a historical
hatred between the Turks and the Kurds," said an old
man who stood in front of a small shop on the
pavement.
"I have visited Turkey before and saw Kurdish
villages there. They are dirty and neglected. But
other villages in the country are clean and
developed. They just hate us because we are Kurds."
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 is considered a terrorist organization by
the U.S. and the EU.
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 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.
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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