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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: kumar who wrote (91744)	4/10/2003 7:59:38 AM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (3) of 281500

Turkey isn't happy... they've "ruled out" permanent Kurdish control of Kirkuk. One wonders how that might be enforced, and who's going to tell the Kurds they're not allowed to stay in their historic capitals... biz.yahoo.com ANKARA, April 10 (Reuters) - - Turkey said it would be unacceptable for Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters who swept into the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Thursday to set up a permanent presence there. "It wouldn't be important if the Kurdish peshmergas were acting spontaneously and withdrew. But it would be unacceptable if they were there permanently," a senior foreign ministry official told reporters as Kurdish and U.S. forces poured into the city after Iraqi forces gave up defending it. Turkey fears that Iraqi Kurds could use control of Kirkuk to provide the financial basis for an independent state. The Kurds and their U.S. allies say a bid for independence is out of the question. Turkey has a large armoured force near the Iraqi border and says it could enter Iraq if its interests were threatened. It fears an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq could lead to similar demands by separatist Kurds in southeast Turkey. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said earlier that Turkey was watching events in northern Iraq closely. The United States has offered Turkey $1 billion in aid and stressed that Turkish armed forces should not enter northern Iraq as this would antagonise Iraqi Kurds and destabilise the situation. "Everything is being followed very closely," Gul told reporters at the foreign ministry. "Whatever is necessary will be done. Talks are being carried out. Turkey's stance on this issue is clear and open." Kurdish commanders in northern Iraq told Reuters that Kirkuk, at the heart of Iraq's oil industry in the north, was "under control". Reuters reporters on the city's outskirts saw hundreds of Kurdish guerrillas enter the city. Both Iraqi Kurdish leaders and the United States say the formation of a breakaway Kurdish state is out of the question but Turkey, still smarting from more than a decade of conflict with its own separatist Kurdish rebels, has its doubts. ts@watchthatspace.com

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