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Turkey targets Iraq Kurds and not just PKK
rebels: Kurdistan PM
28.2.2008
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February
28, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Kurdistan's prime minister said he suspected
Turkey's incursion into Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'
was meant to target the Kurdish region and not just
separatist guerrilla bases in the remote mountainous
area.
Thousands of Turkish troops, backed by tanks, attack
helicopters and warplanes,
crossed into Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq' on February 21 in an operation which
Ankara said was aimed at Turkey's Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) guerrillas and their bases.
"We're not convinced whether these attacks are truly
against the PKK or if they are actually against the
Kurdistan region of Iraq,"www.ekurd.net
said Nechirvan Barzani,
prime minister of largely autonomous Kurdistan in
northern Iraq.
"The actions of the Turkish military in attacking
bridges in the border areas, which are important to
people there, makes us anxious," Barzani told
Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday. |
Nechirvan Barzani, Prime
Minister of
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) |
PKK fighters have used
bases in the area in a decades-long armed campaign
for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of
Turkey.
Turkish officials have said they targeted the
bridges because they were used by PKK rebels.
Turkey views Kurdish northern Iraq with mixed
emotions.
On the one hand, it fears the emergence of a wealthy
Kurdish independent state that could fuel a
separatist insurgency in its southeast.
On the other, increased trade with the region could
help revive the southeastern economy and alleviate
the poverty that has fed rebellion there for over 20
years.
Barzani called on Washington to do more to pressure
Turkey into withdrawing its troops from northern
Iraq.
"America carries great responsibility ... for
preserving the stability of Iraq as a whole," he
said.
"For that reason America needs to take a firmer
stance than it is now about the Turkish military
operation."
The United States wants NATO ally Turkey to end its
offensive,www.ekurd.net
now in its eighth
day, as soon as possible. Defense Secretary Robert
Gates said on a visit to Ankara he had been given no
timetable for a withdrawal.
The United States is providing significant
intelligence to Turkey for its operation against the
PKK.
Turkey told Gates it would withdraw its troops from
northern Iraq when the operation against the PKK
guerrillas was completed.
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.
The core of Turkey's "Kurdish problem" is not the
PKK. It is Turkey's denial of basic political and
cultural rights to its Kurds.
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.
Turks are also fearful of the autonomy the northern
Iraqi Kurdistan region enjoys with its own flag,
institutions and even oil exploitation contracts
with overseas companies.
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.
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.
Information for this report was provided Reuters | Agencies
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