|
EU Parliament urges Turkey to respect
Iraq's territorial integrity
21.4.2008
|
|
|
|
April
21, 2008
BRUSSELS, The European Parliament (EP) will
call on Turkey not to engage in any disproportionate
military operations violating Iraq's Kurdistan
territory and urge Ankara to respect Iraq's
territorial integrity.
The call is made in a new report on Turkey to be
debated by the EP's Committee on Foreign Affairs
during its session in Strasbourg Monday evening.
The report urges the government of Iraq and the
Kurdistan regional government of Iraq not to allow
Iraqi territory to be used as base for terrorist
acts against Turkey and welcomes the communication
taking place between the governments of Turkey and
Iraq.
It welcomes the commitment of Prime Minister Erdogan
that 2008 is going to be the year of reforms and
strongly condemns the decision of the Constitutional
Court to accept the petition of the chief prosecutor
calling for a ban on the governing AK Party and for
a ruling banning the prime minister and the
president from engaging in politics.
It points out that a ban on the ruling party,www.ekurd.net
which won 47 percent of
the vote, would destabilize Turkey and would plunge
it into political chaos.
The EP's plenary session will debate the report on
Turkey in May.(
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, kuna
net.kw,
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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 