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Gates pressures Turks on Iraqi Kurdistan
offensive
28.2.2008
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February 28, 2008
ANKARA, Turkey -- U.S. Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said Wednesday that Turkey should
remove its troops from Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' in
the next few days, sending
a strong message to Ankara that U.S. patience is
running out on the operation targeting
Turkey's Kurdish PKK insurgents.
Gates said he will ask Turkish leaders in a series
of meetings Thursday to address some of the
complaints of the Kurds and to seek economic and
political solutions rather than military means to
solve differences with them .
Gates said he told the defense minister that
military action alone will not end the threat from
the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party,www.ekurd.net
or PKK, rebels that the
Turks view as terrorists. |
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates |
"It's very important that the Turks make this
operation as short as possible and then leave,"
Gates said late Wednesday in India, before leaving
for Turkey. "They have to be mindful of Iraqi
sovereignty. I measure quick in terms of days, a
week or two, something like that, not months."
It was the first time the Pentagon chief put a time
limit on the Turkish incursion, which began Thursday
against separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers
Party.
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.
Overnight Wednesday despite the Iraqi and American
calls, Turkish fighter jets pounded rebel positions
on the sixth full day of the incursion,www.ekurd.net
the Turkish military
said 77 separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
militants had been killed overnight in "the heaviest
clashes" since its forces rolled over the border
into the snow-bound mountains of northern Iraq last
week.
A senior U.S. defense official traveling to Turkey
with Gates said there was some debate over whether
Gates should cancel his visit to Ankara this week.
Gates will be meeting with the Turkish president,
prime minister, defense minister and military chief
of defense.
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.
Over
10,000 troops were reported to have penetrated
20 kilometers into the autonomous
Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq' on February 21.
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.
AP | 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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