Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERifEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RwISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETÏ
Turkish Daily News
SATURDAY,MAY27,I995
.inönü urges an end to power vacullminN. Iraq
Foreign minister says Operation
Provide Comfort is under
discussion between allies.
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- Foreign Minister Erdaltnönü said on
Friday that the structure and future of Operation Provide
Comfort, an allied force stationed in Turkey to protect
Iraqi Kurds, was under discussion among Turkey and its
European partners. .
"We have discussed Operation Provide Comfort with
a visiting delegation from the United States, but this was
just the beginning. We will continue with our tàIks,"
Inönü told re~rters in his fIrst formaI press conference
since taking office two months ago.. ,.
. Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ozdem Sanberk told
the TON in an interview earlier in the week that Turkey
wanted Operation Provide Comfort to "have a peace
perspective," in other words, to be tied to a peace plan iri
Iraq.
"The p,ower vacuum in northern Iraq prevents any
solution, ' 1nönü said.
He ruled out a redrawing of the border witlÎ Iraq in a
way to make monitoring easier. "That is something we
havenever asked our Iraqi counterparts for," lIiönü
said, flatly denying press reports that Iraq was ready for
it. "How can they reply affrrmatively to a question that
is not asked?"
He said that he expected northern Iraqi Kurds ~oprovide
security in the region. But he refused to give details
about the ongoing talks between Turkey and a visiting
delegation from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
"In all our talks, we tell them that they should stop
this fighting,"1nönü said.
C',
r
Turkish Daily News
IraqiKurds to
delay elections
until June 1996
AgenCe France Presse .
DARABAN-. Feuding
Iraqi Kurd factions
agreed here Saturday to postpone elections in
. northern Iraq for a year and extend their parliament's
mandate, an AFP correspondent SaId. .
'. In a l5-minute session, 85 members of the
105-seat assembly agreed unanimously by a
show of hands to postpone the elections to June
4, 1996. .
The group gathered in a mosque in the remote
but neutral village of Daraban, north of the main
town of Arbil, for the meeting chaired by speaker
Jawar Namik.
Among those present were 40 members of the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the
same num.b~r from.i.ts rivaI the Patriotic Union
SUNDAY,MAY28.199S
of Kurdistan (PUK) as well as five members of
the smaIl Assyrian Movement.
The parliament's term had been due to expire
on June 4, three years after the assembly was
fmt elected in 1992. But armed clashes between
the two main parties which share control in the. .
parliament made new elections difficult to organize
and threatened a collapsé of the KurdIsh'
experiment in democracy.
One member said: "Forget elections. If we
can't solve our problems now, how can we ever
hold elections?'
Fighting between the. KDP and PUK over
power and ta~ revenues since May 1994 has
cost 2,000 lives, according to KurdIsh sources,
and left the region split with each faction controlling
pne part. .
The KDP said earlier that "a neutrallocation
for the session was agreed upon for security
purposes." .
The parliament, which is not internationally
recofDlzed, is based in Arbil, which has been
under PUK control since December. It has
stopped meeting since the PUK captured the
town from the KDP.
.'
.. Northern Iraq has been under Kurdish control,
in defiance of Baghdad, since the end of
the Gulf war for Kuwait in 1991. .
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