|
Iraq, Turkey vow to boost ties, act against Kurdish PKK rebels |
|
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page |
|
Iraq, Turkey vow to boost ties, act
against Kurdish PKK rebels
8.3.2008
|
|
|
 |
March 8, 2008
ANKARA, -- The leaders of Iraq and Turkey
pledged Friday to take measures against Turkey's
Kurdish PKK rebels in Kurdistan region 'northern
Iraq' during talks to soothe tensions following a
Turkish cross-border offensive against the
militants.
"The aim of this visit is to be able to establish
strategic and solid relations with Turkey," Iraq's
President Jalal Talabani said after talks with his
Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.
"We want our cooperation to be a model relationship
for the Middle East," Talabani said through an
interpreter, adding that Baghdad wanted closer
energy, economic, cultural and political ties.
Welcoming Talabani to Ankara for his first visit as
head of state, Gul made a similar call and said both
countries would hold further talks to work out the
detail of what he said was the common vision for
bilateral ties. |
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani (L) shakes hands
with Turkey's President Abdullah Gul (R) during a
news conference in Ankara March 7, 2008 |
"I believe that if we
tap into the great potential between Turkey and
Iraq, we will produce a great neighbourly
relationship," he said.
The warm messages followed recent tensions between
the neighbours over a
week-long ground incursion
by the Turkish army into semt-autonomous Kurdistan
region in 'northern Iraq' to hunt rebels from
Turkish-Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK),www.ekurd.net
which ended last week.
Turkey charges that more than 2,000 PKK militants
use Iraqi Kurdistan as a base for their separatist
campaign against Ankara and accuses Iraqi Kurds of
tolerating the rebels. Kurdish authorities in
Kurdistan region strongly reject the claim.
At the time, Baghdad slammed the incursion as an
unacceptable violation of its sovereignty, while the
United States feared it might escalate into a
broader conflict between Turkish forces and Iraqi
Kurds.
The Turkish military warned this week that it could
carry out more cross-border strikes on the rebels if
need be.
Neither Gul nor Talabani directly addressed the
incursion, but when queried by reporters, the Iraqi
President, a Kurd himself, said Iraq would not allow
illegal groups to launch attacks from Iraqi soil.
"We are obviously opposed to an organisation that
launches attacks against a neighbouring country and
we will not allow it," Talabani said,www.ekurd.net
adding that Baghdad and
Ankara would hold talks on a "comprehensive security
agreement".
He explained that the Kurdish administration in
Iraqi Kurdistan had been ordered to pressure PKK
militants to either lay down their arms or leave the
region.
Gul described the PKk as a "common curse" and called
on the rebels to disarm.
"Let me underline that the Turkish state will not
tolerate those who are implicated in terrorism," Gul
said when asked whether Ankara would make any
political overtures to the rebels.
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.
Parliament authorised cross-border military action
against the rebels in October, paving the way for
the ground offensive.
Washington backed the Turkish incursion by supplying
its NATO ally with intelligence, but pressed for a
swift withdrawal on fears that it could lead to
tensions in a relatively stable region of
conflict-torn Iraq.
Gul had invited Talabani to visit on February 21,
hours after Turkish forces stormed into northern
Iraq to crack down on PKK camps.
"This operation was a message on how determined we
are" to stop the PKK from using northern Iraq as a
safe haven, Turkey's special representative for Iraq
Murat Ozcelik said in an interview with NTV
television ahead of the visit.
Baghdad has acknowledged the threat the PKK poses to
Turkey and "this gives us an opportunity to re-focus
on diplomacy in 2008," he said.
"Relations...will gain a new momentum and we will
enter a period in which a new page will be turned,"
he added.
Talabani is expected to lunch with Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and have talks with
representatives of a Turkish-Iraqi business group on
Saturday before wrapping up his visit.
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.
AFP | 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 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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
|
|
® 