Iraqi Kurdish parliament discusses tensions with Turkey
YAHYA BARZANJI, AP Worldstream
Published: Apr 14, 2007
Iraq’s Kurds are ready for talks with Turkey but will not accept any
Turkish military interference in Iraq, the prime minister of the
Kurdish regional government said Saturday.
Nechervan Barzani spoke after the Kurdish parliament held a meeting to
discuss rising tensions with Turkey. The leader of the Kurdish
autonomous region, Massoud Barzani, has suggested Iraqi Kurds would
interfere in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast if the country
meddled in Iraq’s affairs.
"We are ready to sit with them for a dialogue at any time and in any
place," said Nechervan Barzani, who is the nephew of the Kurdish
president. "We don’t accept any military interference inside Iraq’s
territory."
On Friday, Turkish troops killed four armed Kurdish guerrillas who had
crossed over the border from northern Iraq, according to Turkey’s
government-owned Anatolia news agency. The guerrillas were killed in a
gunbattle that broke out among troops and a group of about 15 rebels
near the town of Semdinli on the Iraqi border, Anatolia said.
The deaths bring to 17 the number of guerrillas killed this week in
clashes in Turkey’s southeast. Earlier in the week, the head of
Turkey’s armed forces requested permission to launch an operation into
northern Iraq to attack the Kurdish rebels at their bases there.
"Threats do not solve the problems. We are neighbors and should solve
our problems through dialogue," the prime minister said.
Close to 40,000 people have died in fighting since autonomy-seeking
rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, took up arms against
the Turkish state in 1984.