Armenian Kurds hail victory in Iraqi polls

Mediamax news agency
15 Feb 05

Yerevan, 15 February: The chairman of the Kurdistan committee in
Armenia, Charkaz Mstoyan, said in Yerevan today that the second place
taken by the Kurdish alliance in the Iraqi elections will “favourably
reflect on the resolution of the Kurds’ national tasks and serve as
a basis for the strengthening of Armenian-Kurdish relations,” Mstoyan
said in reply to a question from our Mediamax correspondent today.

[Passage omitted: Turkish reaction to polls]

The Kurdistan committee today staged a procession through the central
streets of Yerevan in defence of the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’
Party [PKK], Abdullah Ocalan, who was arrested six years ago. Mstoyan
said that “protest actions demanding the release of the leader of the
Kurdish people will be staged today in the countries where there are
Kurdish communities”.

“We demand freedom for Abdullah Ocalan. No peace and stability can be
established in our region without a harmonic solution to the Kurdish
problem,” the chairman of the Kurdistan committee said.