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US supports Turkey's fight against Kurdish
PKK rebels
25.3.2008
By Staff |
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March 25, 2008
ISTANBUL,-- Vice President Dick Cheney on
Monday told Turkey that the United States supported
its fight against Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels in
Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq', but wanted to
ensure it did not add to political tensions in Iraq,
a senior U.S. administration official said.
The United States is trying to smooth tensions
between two key allies, Iraq and Turkey, over
Turkey's incursions into Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'
to fight Kurdish rebels known as the PKK.
"The United States has certainly been supportive of
Turkey in that fight against the PKK," the U.S.
official said on condition of anonymity.
"We've worked hard with the Turks as well as with
the Iraqis to try and figure out how to get at the
PKK problem in as productive a way as possible," the
official said. |
Vice President Dick Cheney (L) and Turkish President
Abdullah Gul (R) pose for the media after a meeting
in Ankara March 24, 2008. Cheney is in Ankara for
talks with top Turkish officials |
That meant helping Turkey and Iraq fight the PKK
while being sensitive to Iraq's delicate political
and security situation,www.ekurd.net
and "trying hard to
avoid any problems that would add to the existing
stresses on the Iraqi political balance," he said.
Cheney started a nine-day trip to the Middle East
with a stop in Iraq that included a trip to Erbil,
where he
met Iraq's Kurdistan president
Massoud Barzani last week and discussed the PKK
among other issues.
Turkish-U.S. relations have been rocky in recent
years but improved after Washington shared
intelligence during a Turkish ground offensive
against Kurdish rebels in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
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.
Several small protests greeted Cheney's Turkey visit
to Ankara. In one, some 150 people chanted slogans
against the Iraq war and U.S. imperialism, and
called on Turkey to reject a U.S. request to send
more Turkish troops to Afghanistan.
Cheney was told during his talks in Ankara that
Turkey was going to stay engaged in Afghanistan, but
he received no immediate commitments about doing
more, the U.S. official said.
Turkey's Chief of General Staff General Yasar
Buyukanit,www.ekurd.net
who met Cheney on
Monday, later reiterated Turkey's opposition to
sending more troops to Afghanistan when the army was
fighting the PKK elsewhere.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the The PKK took up arms for self-rule in
Turkey's southeast. 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.
Information for this report was provided by Reuters
| 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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