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Turkey plans $12 billion infusion for
Kurdish region
12.3.2008
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March 12, 2008
ANKARA, -- Turkey's government is planning a
broad series of investments worth as much as $12
billion in the country's largely Kurdish southeast
(Kurdistan-Turkey, northern Kurdistan) to create
jobs and draw young Kurdish men away from militancy,
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.
The initiative is designed to drain support for the
Turkey's militant Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK by
improving the lives of the impoverished Kurdish
minority, Erdogan said in an interview.
As part of the push, the government will dedicate a
state television channel to Kurdish language
broadcasting, a measure that Kurds in Turkey have
sought for years.
Kurds speak Kurdish, but the Turkish state has
imposed severe restrictions on speaking it, arguing
that allowing that freedom would strengthen their
desire to form a separate state.
"Everyone who has entered Iraq until now will stay
for a while and go away, but we will stay," said
Erdogan, speaking in his official residence in
Ankara, Turkey's capital.
"We have relatives in northern Iraq. And people
living there have relatives in our southeastern
region. With whom will we have good relations other
than with ourselves?"
Turkey, a NATO member and a strong American ally,www.ekurd.net
is a vibrant Muslim
democracy that is unique in the Middle East. It has
fought the militant group, known as the PKK, in
Turkey and Iraq for years to prevent it from
establishing a separate Kurdish state.
That fight has put it at odds with the United
States, whose strongest allies in the war in Iraq
are Kurds. But after an ambush of Turkish troops
last fall, the Bush administration agreed to let
Turkey strike at the group inside Iraqi Kurdistan
region, and even offered intelligence.
"I can openly and freely say that this short process
has been done with the total understanding of
Turkey, the United States and the central government
of Iraq," Erdogan said.
"But the fight against terrorism is not only this,"
he added. "It also has a socio- economic part, a
psychological part, a cultural part."
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 Ankara, U.S. and the EU.
Thousands of Turkish troops, backed by tanks,
attack helicopters and warplanes,
crossed into Kurdistan region in northern
Iraq on February 21 in an operation which Ankara said was aimed at Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas and their bases.
Turkish forces withdrew
from semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in 'northern
Iraq' on February 29, only a day after US President
George W. Bush
urged Ankara to
quickly wrap up the incursion and Defense Secretary
Robert Gates personally
put pressure on
Turkish leaders during a visit to Ankara.
Iraqi Kurdistan politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group (Kurdish
freedom fighters) 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 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.
Information for this report was provided by iht com
| 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 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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