US NEWS & WORLD REPORT ACCUSES TURKEY OF GIVING ARMS TO TURKMENIS IN IRAQ

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.12.2006 14:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ US News & World Report magazine claims that Turkey
gives arms and money to Turkmenis in Kirkuk on the North of Iraq. An
unnamed US source told the magazine that "Turkey, which fears an
independent Kurdistan, is supplying arms and money to the Turkmen
population in Kirkuk." According to the article, Shiites in Kirkuk
have allowed Mehdi Army militias to take up position in Kirkuk in
order to put up a front against the Kurdish forces. Adding to the
portrait of the northern region of Iraq painted by the US News &
World Report article, a US army commander, General Benjamin Mixon,
is quoted as saying "We have to be ready, the tension will be very
high." The same article notes that during Saddam’s reign, ethnic
Arabs were relocated to Kirkuk, while after the US invasion, Kurds
had flowed by the thousands into the area, The Hurriyet reports.