Talabani says uniting all Kurds within Kurdish state “just a dream in poems”

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani ruled out the future possibility of an independent Kurdish state in a bid to appease regional countries’ concerns regarding the issue, describing that as “just a dream in poems,” Hurriyet Daily News said on Monday. Talabani told a Turkish newspaper in an interview published on Monday that it was not realistic to believe that an independent Kurdish state could survive, as it is likely that neighboring countries Turkey, Iran and Syria would close their borders. “I tell my Turkish brothers not to fear that Kurds will declare independence. It is advantageous for the Kurds to stay within the borders of Iraq in terms of their economic, cultural, social, and political interests,” he said during the interview. He said uniting all Kurds, including those in Turkey and Iran, within one Kurdish state is “just a dream in poems”. “How will you divide Turkey, Iran or Iraq? It is impossible to even contemplate this. It would require a world war for such a thing to happen. This is impossible,” Talabani, himself a Kurd, said. Talabani also said 95 percent of Iraqi Kurds voted in favor of the new Iraqi Constitution, which says the country is “a democratic, federal, representative republic”, in a show of support to the unity of Iraq. “After the U.S. occupation in 2003, Kurds in the northern Iraq strengthened their autonomous statute, prompting concerns in regional countries with high Kurdish populations, like Turkey, Syria and Iran that the regional administration would eventually declare independence and separate from Iraq. Turkey supports Iraq’s territorial integrity,” the newspaper said. Talabani, who is in Istanbul to attend the fifth World Water Forum, met Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan late on Sunday. “The issues of security and the struggle with the terror organization PKK, which launches cross-border attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq, were high on agenda of the meeting between Erdogan and Talabani,” the newspaper quoted sources as saying. The PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, which is banned in Turkey, has been leading an armed campaign inside Turkey since 1984.   SH (I)/SR 1