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

REVUE DE PRESSE#PRESS REVIEW#BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ#RNISTA STAMPA~DéNTRO DE LA PRENSA.BASIN ÖZETi
Idea of Turkish rule in north Iraq
finds backersamong Kurds, AFP says
One Kurdish aid worker believes that with its ambitions vis-a-vis the
EU, Turkey could be more open to pressure for democracy than Iraq
Turkish Daily News
that Turkey, with its ambition to joiri
ANKARA- The idea of Turkey the Euro~an Union, could come under
administering northern Iraq, or the more ef ective pressure to imflement
Ottoman provmce of Mosul, has a~par-
democracy than the president 0 Iraq.
ently-found some support amon~ ocal
"[Demirel's] message swept through
Kurds in the region, the Agence rance every household. Everybody has been
.Presse said on Monday.
discussing it," Selman Shabd, an offi-
"A longstanding territorial claim on cial of the Kurdistan Democratic Party,
northern Ira
Û
' revived by. Turkish one of the groups which have con-
President Sü eyman DemueI, has trolled the north in defiance of
found backers among the Kurds of the
Baghdad since 1991, was also quoted
region, in contrast to the angry reaction
byAFP as sayin,.
of Batdad," Tolle Aram, reporting for Even people iving in his town of
AFP rom Dohuk, said. The notion of a
Kani Masi, m the heart of the border
"longstanding territorial claim on zone which Turkish troops occukied
northern Iraq" was considered "curi-
for six weeks in the recent Tur ish
aus" be offiCIaIsin Ankara who see the
operation against the PKK, would opt
Mosu matter as purely "academic
V"l
for Turkelt rather than Saddam's Ira~
0\
~ issue" today.
.. he said. " f Saddam Hussein came bac
oö President Demirel, in an interview
tomorrow promising democracy and
>- with the Turkish Daily News last week, President Süleyman Demirel
<
freedom, nobody would believe him.
::E indicated that when the Ottomalis laid
Too often he has turned out to be a
>-'" .down their arms at the end of World
<
two countries passed over hifh moun- liar," Shalid charrd .
Cl War I, Mosul was still in their hands.
z
tains which are hard to de end had "Although Tur ey isn't a real alter-
0 He said that the Kemalists who subse- made it easier for incursions by sIfK- native, it's an open option and could be
::E 'quently fought a war of liberation and ratistKurdistan Workers' Party (P ) an im&rovement,"he said.
established the Turkish Republic, had rebels into Turkey. He did qualify his Ne es Ahmad, a young man said to
also considered Mosul as part of remarks by addin~ that this was "not a be from a village alleged by AFP as
."National Pact territory." Denurel said matter for today' and s~gesting that having been "looted" by Turkish troops
that in the confusion following the .once Baghdad exercised e sovereign- during the incursion launched on
uprisings in Turkel in the 1920s" the ty over the re~ion that it could not March 20 - ach~e angrily. denied
question of Mosu had been settled exercise today at matter could be dis- ~ the Turkish arm forces - told the
when this province was attached to cussed between the two sides in the rench agency that Turkey could also
Ira8' where It has been ever since. future. not be trusted in its treatment of the
. emirel did not, however, intimate But his remarks were taken by Kurds.
any "territorial claims" by Ankara over Baghdad as ini~Ying territorial designs . "But if they were here, we wouldn't
the province today and merel b com- over northern aq today and severely have any more problems with the PKK
blained about the way the order criticized. The Revolutionary and Tu~ would not attack our viletween
the two countries was drawn Command Council (RCC), the highest lages," quoted him saying, apparup.
Ankara's diplomacy vis-a-vis authority chaired by Saddam, warned ently amidst "nods .of aperoval from
Baghdad is very much tied up with the that Ira~ would be ready to fight to . other residents," AFP saId: "Out of
notion of keeping Iraq's "territorial kee~ol. of its northern border region. severalhEb questioned in the border
integriZ" intact and Foreign Ministry " yefuses to study this issue and town 0 Z 0 as well as Dohuk and
officia s indicate that remarks about warns urkey against any unilateral Kani Masi, nobody opposed the
"Turkish territorial claims on Mosul action that might alter the national bor- Turkeyoption. But some feared it
brovince" represent misinformation der," the RCC said last week. could bring the PKK's struggle' against .
ased on misreadin~s of what Demirel Demirel's remarks were apparently Ankara even closer to their doorsteps."
said.The United tates signaled its also taken by Kurds in northern Iraq as "The PKK would view our villages ;"
0Kposition last week to any notion of a implying "territorial designs," judgmg as Turkish ones and intensifS' their
cange of Iraq's borders.
~
by the AFP rt0rt on Mondaili' . attacks,even on us," Abdullah aidi, a
~ . Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Ekber . "Ira\and urkll are bo enemies merchant in Zakho, wasChrited as say-
-:1:::-
-C-> . Velayeti was quoted by Jhe Kayhan of the. urds," a urd working for a ing. Shmael Johanna, a 'stian head-.
.,...... daily in Tehran on Monday as saying
~
f9reign aid ~anizatio~ in Dohu~ was master in Kani Masis, on the other
Q that "any territorial claims on Mosul by quoted'by- .as saymg. "aut If-we. hand was reported as cautioni~ that
~ Turkel - .if indeed Demirelreferred. had; to 'Chel'Ose,we would choose the Kurds would onlywelcome . urkey
to suc a claim - would have ne8aüve Turkeyso long as Saddam Hussein if a ch~e of borders was backed by
~
~ effects on peace in the regIOn." rules Iraq." . the Unit States and United Nations.
~
56
Demirel did say in his interview that The aid worker, asking not to be "Othérwise peoplewould.never give
the fact that tbis border between the . named, said the Iraqi Kurds believed up their Iraqi nationality," he said.
~f.