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Turkish parliament extends mandate on
Iraqi Kurdistan strikes
9.10.2008
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October
9, 2008
ANKARA, — Turkey's parliament Wednesday
extended the government's mandate to order strikes
against Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels in Kurdistan
region "northern Iraq" as an
attack on a Turkish
police bus in the country's southeast killed five
people.
The assault came just days after rebels from the
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) killed 17
soldiers in a daytime attack on a military outpost
near the border with Iraq.
The motion,www.ekurd.net
which gives the
government another year-long authorisation for
cross-border operations against PKK hideouts in
Kurdistan "northern Iraq", won backing from all
parties in parliament, except the Democratic Society
Party, the country's main Kurdish political
movement.
Deputy parliament speaker Guldal Mumcu initially
announced that 511 lawmakers had voted for the
motion, but session minutes published later revised
the number down to 497 as several deputies had cast
multiple votes.
As parliament was in session, suspected PKK
assailants opened fire on a bus carrying employees
of the police academy in Diyarbakir, the main city
in the Kurdish-populated southeast, killing the
driver and four police officers.
Nineteen other officers were injured in the attack.
"These (attacks) will not daunt us. We will continue
our struggle until the terrorist organisation lays
down arms," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
after the vote, using the official jargon for the
PKK.
The bloodshed is likely to increase nationwide
outrage triggered by Friday's attack, in which PKK
rebels tried to take out an outpost in the border
province of Hakkari, under cover of heavy weapons
fire from northern Iraq.
The ensuing clashes killed 23 militants, the army
said.
Security operations intensified inside Turkey after
the assault and four militants were killed in Sirnak
province late Tuesday,www.ekurd.net
while a wounded soldier
died in hospital in Diyarbakir, officials said
Wednesday.
The motion leaves it up to the government to decide
on the scope and timing of a cross-border operation
and Erdogan said Tuesday that such an operation
would be carried out "if need be, at the right time
and under the right conditions."
The prime minister is to attend a meeting of
civilian and military leaders, among them army chief
Ilker Basbug, on Thursday to discuss fresh measures
against the PKK, most likely including economic and
social steps to erode support for the group.
"Tomorrow, we will look over our new road map and
prepare the ground, I believe, for a decision for
some steps that we will take," Erdogan said without
giving details.
He said opposition calls to set up a military buffer
zone inside northern Iraq to stop rebel
infiltrations would also be discussed, but also
signalled his reluctance about the move.
"If it is really necessary, we will take this step,"
he said.
Under the mandate that parliament renewed, the
Turkish army has carried out several air strikes in
northern Iraq as well as a week-long ground
incursion in February.
The operations were backed by intelligence from the
United States, which is nevertheless worried that a
large-scale Turkish intervention could destabilise
Iraq's relatively calm north.
Since January,www.ekurd.net
Turkish forces have
killed 640 PKK militants, about 400 of them in
cross-border operations in northern Iraq, according
to army figures.
Turkish officials charge that about 2,000 PKK rebels
are holed up in the autonomous enclave, where they
allegedly enjoy free movement, are tolerated by the
region's Kurdish leaders and obtain weapons and
explosives for attacks in Turkey.
Iraqi authorities have repeatedly pledged to curb
the PKK, but say the group takes refuge in
mountainous regions difficult to access.
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.
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional
government that holds sway in northern Iraq,
regretted Ankara's refusal to hold direct talks on
the crisis over the Turkey's separatist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.
In earlier statement by 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.
Iraqi Kurds says previously we saw the Turkish army
invading the region under the pretext of chasing the
PKK and this army did nothing.
Over 39,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan). 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.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians
say the measures fall short of their expectations.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, 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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