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Turkey worried that Iraqi Kurdistan could
become a state
6.1.2012
By Israel matzav
— ekurd.net |
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January
6, 2012
Turkey is urging the United States to ensure that
Iraq does not break up into ethnic enclaves,
one
of which would be Kurdish.
In the face of escalating sectarian tension inside
Iraq, Ankara has recently issued multiple messages
to Baghdad and Washington, sounding the alarm about
what might occur in Iraq in the post-US period, the
Turkish daily Sabah reported. The daily claimed that
Ankara got in touch with US officials, warning them
against “spoiling” Maliki, who took charge of the
Iraqi government after years of trying to reconcile
the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish blocs in the country.
Turkey also warned the US of “the increasing
possibility of Iraq being partitioned,” which would
seriously jeopardize security in the region, Sabah
noted.
In the wake of a Shiite bloc move against senior
Sunni officials in what appears to be an attempt to
strip them of their power to increase Shiite
dominance in the coalition government, Ankara
reportedly contacted Maliki to urge him to keep the
promises he made when he rose to power and protect
the multicultural structure of Iraq. Turkish
officials further called on Maliki “not to meddle in
Syrian politics,” on the grounds that the sectarian
situation in Iraq is not connected to the situation
in Syria, which is experiencing a bloody uprising to
force a change of power in that country.
...
Warning that Turkey’s door in the south might close
if Iraq -- already a dangerous area -- becomes more
hazardous after a possible partition, expert and
academic Mensur Akgün voiced concern that Turkey’s
ties with the semiautonomous Kurdish administration
in the north will need fine tuning, the daily Taraf
reported in an interview on Monday.
“If Iraq falls apart for a reason that lies outside
the Kurdish bloc, Turkey will have to recognize a
Kurdish state in Iraq’s north,” Akgün was quoted by
Taraf as saying, as he justified the logic of such a
move on Turkey’s increased need for stronger
connections with the Kurdish administration when
Sunnis and Shiites wage a sectarian war in the rest
of the country. Predicting that the Kurdish
administration would stay out of the sectarian
strife to maintain stability,www.ekurd.net
Akgün suggested that an unlikely alliance has arisen
between the Kurdish administration and Turkey,
“sides the West did not believe would concur.”
Israel matzav, an Orthodox Jew, he was a
corporate and securities attorney in New York City
for seven years before making aliya to Israel in
1991, he was a heavy contributor on a number of
email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav
from 2000-2004. You may reach the author via email
at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com. You can visit his
blog at israelmatzav.blogspot.com
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2012/01/turkey-worried-that-iraqi-kurdistan.html
Copyright © 2012 ekurd.net
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