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Turkey receives Talabani as Kurdish
leader, not Iraq's president
10.3.2008
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March 10, 2008
Baghdad ,-- Kurdish newspapers Sunday
condemned as "improper" the reception of Iraqi
president Jalal Talabani in Turkey, where he was
officially welcomed without the Iraqi national
anthem being played or a red carpet being laid on.
Talabani was received by the Turkish president
Abdullah Gul and his prime minister as a Kurdish
leader, not as the president of Iraq,www.ekurd.net
the Kurdish Hawlati
newspaper said.
It added that Turkish army leaders did not welcome
Talabani to the country, which prompted Gul to
describe the visit as a "working visit" not a state
one.
Another Kurdish paper called Holier said that the
official ceremony to receive Talabani did not meet
the common etiquette standards applied to welcoming
presidents of states. |
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani (L) shakes hands
with Turkey's President Abdullah Gul (R) during a
news conference in Ankara March 7, 2008 |
Talabani began an official visit to Ankara Friday,www.ekurd.net
a week after the end of
a major Turkish offensive aimed at Turkey's Kurdish
PKK rebels in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
During his visit, he promised Turkish leaders that
he would take action against the banned
Turkish-Kurdish Workers Party
The battle against the PKK required closer
co-ordination between Ankara, Washington and
Baghdad, Talabani said Saturday.
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.
Since 1984 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.
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.
Information for this report was provided by DPA |
AFP | Agencies
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