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First Turkish official contact with
Kurdistan Regional Government
28.3.2008
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March 28, 2008
DUHOK, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- A Turkish
delegation led by Foreign Ministry Acting Iraq
Coordinator Murat Ozcelik met on Friday with the
governor of the Kurdish Duhok province and the
Foreign Relations chief of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party,www.ekurd.net
(KDP) Safeen Dizayee
thus establishing the first official contact between
officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government and
Turkey.
Ozcelik and his team had been holding high level
contacts in Baghdad. They also travelled to Basra
where Turkey plans to open a consulate.
The delegation returned to Baghdad after clashes
between Shiite groups and government forces
escalated.
From Baghdad they headed to Mosul and before
returning to Turkey via Habur they met with KRG
officials. Habur is a border gate between Turkey and
Iraq's Kurdistan region. |
Turkish Foreign Ministry Acting Iraq Coordinator
Murat Ozcelik (L) Safeen Dizayee (R) the governor of
the Kurdish Duhok province and the Foreign Relations
chief of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) |
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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency
thenewanatolian com | Agencies
** 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 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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