Gul urges Iraq to stop PKK attacks otherwise allow Turkey to do it

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Turkish President Abdullah Gul urged the Baghdad authorities to put an end to attacks waged by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from northern Iraq otherwise allow Ankara to do it. “We are aware that the Iraqis have their own problems. We understand this. But, utmost efforts have to be exerted to end outstanding issues,” Gul said in an interview with the al-Hurra TV station. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, during Gul’s visit to Baghdad last month, called on the PKK to lay down arms for good or leave Iraq. Nejervan Barazani, the head of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region, also supported Talabani’s call. The PKK, however, rejected these calls, saying “no one can expel us from the mountains”. The PKK is considered a “terrorist” organization by both Ankara and the U.S. Over 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the Turkish Kurds of the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan). A large Turkish Kurdish community openly sympathize with the PKK rebels. The PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, 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, granting them full political freedoms. 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. AmR (S) 1