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Gates urges Turkey to do more to reconcile
with Kurds
24.2.2008
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February 24, 2008
CANBERRA, Australia,-- US Defence
Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday he hopes Turkey
keeps its ground campaign against Turkish-Kurdish
PKK militants in Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq'
short and urged it to do more to reconcile with its
Kurdish minority.
"In terms of the
current operations,
I would hope that it would be short, that it would
be precise and avoid the loss of innocent life and
that they leave as quickly as they can accomplish
the mission," Gates told reporters here as he wound
up a visit to Australia.
Asked how short, he said, "The shorter the better." |
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates |
The three-day old
offensive in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' has by the
Turkish military's account killed 79 members of the
Turkish-Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and drawn
warnings from Iraq's foreign minister that it risked
destabilising the country.
Gates, who travels next week to Ankara, said he did
not think Iraq's stability was threatened by the
Turkish operations, and he said Turkey has suffered
from PKK attacks on Turkish troops and civilians in
its territory.
But he said Turkey should show respect for Iraqi
sovereignty by being more open with the Iraqi and
Kurdistan regional governments about its plans and
intentions.
"I think there can always be improvement in the
timeliness and the depth of the dialogue. I think it
can't just be a one-time event. There has to be an
ongoing dialogue," he said.
Gates cited the counter-insurgency lessons the
United States has learned in Afghanistan and Iraq in
urging Turkey to complement its military operations
with initiatives aimed at addressing Kurdish
grievances and eliminate popular support for the PKK.
"But these economic and political measures are
really important because after a certain point
people become inured to military attacks," he said.
"And if you don't blend them with these kinds of
non-military initiatives then at a certain point the
military efforts become less and less effective."
The US government at all levels has relayed that
message to the Turkish government, he said.
Gates said that even though Turkey has had troops in
northern Iraq for years, it has had to resort to air
attacks and the recent ground incursion because it
has not been successful in dealing with the PKK.
"So, this is a difficult long term problem,www.ekurd.net
and in my view that's
why it needs to be addressed in a comprehensive
way," he said. "Just using the military techniques
are not going to be sufficient to solve the
problems."
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.
"Turkey's goal is not only the PKK but the whole
idea of an autonomous Kurdistan region," Massoud
Barzani, the President of Kurdistan said on
Kurdistan TV channel in December 2006.
"If Turkey is really keen on fighting PKK members,
why shouldn't it fight them on its lands now that
there is an intensive presence of PKK inside
Turkey," Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish
lawmaker said earlier. "Turkey has been committing
the crime of terrorism against the Kurdish people
since almost 100 years and isn't granting them their
rights." That's why it's not sensible to describe
the PKK as a terrorist organization. Because the PKK
is struggling against the terrorism committed being
committed by the Turkish government," Othman added.
Analysts believe the Turkish raids had a secondary
purpose of discouraging a referendum on Kirkuk city,
Kirkuk city is a Kurdish city and it lies just south
border of the Kurdistan autonomous region, the
population is a mix of majority Kurds and minority
of Arabs, Christians and Turkmen. Article 140, in
Iraq's 2005 constitution calls for a referendum in
Kirkuk “to determine the will of the citizens to
join autonomous Kurdistan region or stay as a part
of Iraq” by the end of 2007. In December 2007,
Kurdish leaders agreed to a six-month extension of
that deadline, but no longer.
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
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.
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.
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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