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Iraq's Kurdistan President says Turkey's
Kurds must stay away from violence
16.4.2008
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April 16, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq, -- In
an apparent call to members of the Turkey's outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which based in the
border mountains between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan
region, fighting the Turkish army for self-rule and
for more rights for the Kurds in Turkey, Iraqi
Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani said Kurds
should abandon using violence as it is no longer a
useful tool for achieving certain targets.
Barzani's remarks -- which are the latest in a
serious of positive messages concerning relations
with Turkey over the last month -- came in the
resort town of Salahaddin in Erbil,www.ekurd.net
where he gathered with a
group from Turkey's Şirnak Bar Association, the
Zagros television station, based in Erbil, the Iraqi
Kurdistan's capital, reported Tuesday.
"Today, the use of violence is left in the past.
Kurds should adjust themselves to this
transformation and change their mentality; they
should try the other path that is modern and
peaceful," Barzani was quoted as saying during the
meeting. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
Bilateral relations have
soured over Turkish fears that Iraqi Kurds plan to
break away from Iraq, a prospect Ankara fears this
could fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey. Nonetheless, also
recently, Barzani had repeatedly voiced his
administration's loyalty to Iraq's unity.
"The Kurds represented and still represent an
essential pillar in the political process; before
the former regime was ousted, we were almost an
independent state, but Kurdistan's parliament in
'northern Iraq' opted for unity with our Iraqi
brothers outside of the Kurdistan region," Barzani
was quoted as saying in an interview with the Aswat
al-Iraq (VOI) news agency earlier this month.
Over the weekend, at a gathering with KDP executives
and members, Barzani delivered similar conciliatory
messages both on Iraq's unity and the future of
relations with Turkey.
"We need a fundamental change. We brought democracy
for Iraq and federalism for Kurdistan. Carrying our
nationalism to another phase is not on the agenda
anymore because we should prepare ourselves for the
next phase like we had prepared ourselves for the
last phase," Barzani was quoted as saying at the
gathering by the Kurdish Peyamner news agency.
"We want our relations with neighboring countries.
The phase of denying a nation is left in the past as
well. Now is the phase of dialogue. Kurds shouldn't
get involved with violence either amongst itself or
in neighboring countries. ... The mentality of the
Kurdish should change and this way the mentality of
these countries would also change," Barzani was also
quoted as saying.
Earlier this month,
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
said if the regional Iraqi Kurdistan
authorities in 'northern Iraq' display a stronger
stance against the presence of the PKK on their
soil,www.ekurd.net
Ankara would be
encouraged to engage in more substantive dialogue
with them.
Stressing the importance Ankara attaches to contacts
with the central government in Baghdad, Babacan said
there are already "channels of communication"
between Ankara and the regional administration in
Kurdistan, when asked whether there was a plan for a
visit to Ankara by Nechirvan Barzani, Prime minister
of the Kurdistan region.
Turkey rejects direct talks with the official Iraqi
Kurdistan government on the crisis over the Turkey's
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.
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.
Fouad Hussein, the chief of staff for Iraqi
Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani, thinks that the
Turks are using the PKK as a pretext to attack the
Kurds. "The PKK is not the target. The target is
Kurdistan regional government," Hussein said
earlier. Iraqi Kurds says, the PKK problem is an
"internal Turkish problem,"
Iraqi Kurdistan forces chief Brig. Gen. Jabbar Yawar,
an undersecretary for the ministry governing
Kurdistan protection forces known as Peshmerga, said
"Turkey wants imaginary and impossible demands. They
want us to kill all PKK for them while they
themselves cannot do that," he said earlier.
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
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel
group PKK and its political wing on
the European Union's terror list.
Information for this report was provided by
todayszaman.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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