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Iraqi Kurds welcome Turkey's NSC decision
giving go-ahead for dialogue
26.4.2008
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April 26, 2008
Iraqi Kurds, who have long been accused by Ankara of
implicitly supporting the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), have applauded a decision by
Turkey's influential National Security Council NSC (MGK)
that paves the way for talks between Ankara and
Iraqi Kurdistan government.
Turkey's top political leaders and military
commanders on Thursday discussed relations with
neighboring Iraq and
gave the green light
for talks with Iraqi Kurds after having refused for
several years to have dialogue with the Kurdish
groups on suspicions that they support the Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK.
Bahros Galali, the Ankara representative of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani, described the outcome of
the MGK's meeting as "a very positive development."
"We've been extremely pleased with the MGK decision.
The Iraqi Kurds want to have good relations with
Turkey by establishing cooperation in every field,
including security. This MGK decision will be very
useful for improving our relationship with Turkey,
which we regard as a friend, not an enemy," Galali
told Today's Zaman on Friday.
Ankara maintains low-level talks with Iraqi Kurds
running autonomous Kurdistan region in 'northern
Iraq' but refuses to have senior-level dialogue,
urging them to condemn and isolate the PKK in Iraq's
Kurdistan region first. News reports have recently
suggested that Turkish officials are planning talks
with Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of
the autonomous regional Kurdistan region. Massoud
Barzani,www.ekurd.net
President of the Iraqi Kurdistan, has also
softened his usually harsh tone while describing the
state of relations with Turkey in recent speeches.
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.
Earlier this week, speaking about his recent
contacts in Baghdad with the central government of
Iraq, Kurdistan Prime minister Nechirvan Barzani
said that he had originally planned to hold talks
with Turkish officials while in Baghdad. Since Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki was abroad, the planned
talks couldn't take place, he added, without
elaborating on which Turkish officials he would have
met with. "We want good relations with neighboring
countries. We especially want better relations with
Turkey," Nechirvan Barzani said.
Since 1984 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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
todayszaman.com | Agencies
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