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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RWISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE lA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
turkish daily news / August 24, 1993
Iraqi Kurds rebuff PKK
Mesoud Barzani
• KDP says the PKK was
excluded from the recent
convention in order not to
harm relations with Turkey
Turkish Daily News
IRBIL/ANKARA-The Iraqi Kurdish leadership
rebuffed the Turkish secessIOnist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) once again by excluding them
from last week's convention of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) of Iraq.
The KDP has asked the PKK "not to come" to
the II th Convention of the KDP held in Irbillast
week, in order not to harm the Iraqi Kurds' relations
with Turkey, a senior Party official said.
Mesoud Barzani, the leader of the KDP, describes
the distanced relations between the Iraqi Kurdish
leadership -- which declared a parliament and
a government for a "federal Kurdistan within Iraq"
a year ago -- and the PKK:
"The PKK is obliged to abide by the agreement
it signed with the Iraqi Kurdish administration and
respect its laws. There is no problem as long as it
respects our administration. But it cannot stay in
our region if it violates our rules." That the PKK
was excluded from the convention, which was attended
by many political figures and representatives
of political parties not only from Irag, but also
from Turkey, Iran and Syria, has been cnticised by
the Kurds in Turkey who are relatively close to the
PKK ..For example, Yasar Kaya, the head of the
p~o-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP) of the Turkish"parliament
was quoted in the pro-Kurdish daily
Ozgür Gündem on Mondax as saying the absence
of the PKK in Irbil was 'higly criticized" by
the participants.
But It is not only the KDP which seems to be on Iraqi Kurdish leadership for pennission to
shaky tenns with the PKK in the Iraqi Kurdish re- open its office. .
gion. . h . K d' h th P .. The Iraqi Kurds consider the PKK to be
For the ot er mam ur IS party, e atnotlC the Turkey's problem and think Turkey
Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the PKK is "a kind of should deal with it.
opposition party" staying in Iraqi Kurdistan as gu- . "Why doesn't the Turkish government
ests. The Peshmarge (fighting) Affairs Minister of solve the problem in a democratic way,"
the Iraqi, Kurdish Parliament, Jabber Farman, many local people ask.
draws tile limits of the status of the PKK neatly: According to them, PKK members are
."We will not allow the PKK to violate the agree- their brothers, whatever they do. And they
ment and to attack Turkey from our land," have no problem with the PKK as long as
Both the KDP and the PUK refer to an agree- they do not attack Turkey from Iraqi Kurment
they have with Turkey on jointly maintaming distan. The II th convention of the KDP
security on the Turkish-Iraqi border. The agree- has showed once again that the Iraqi Kurment
was reached after a maJor cross-border mili- dish leadership wants to stay on good
tary operation by Turkey agamst the PKK military tenn~ ~ith Turkey, the ~nly safe Iifelin.e
camps in Northern Iraq last Autumn for some forty to outsIde world for IraqI Kurds for the bdays.
. me bein~. The Iraqi Kurds excluded "their
In practical tenns it means not allowing the-PKK brothers from an Important convention -~
to use Northern Iraq, which is assumed to be cont- hel~ for the first time in Iraq since the esrolled
by Iraqi Kurds, in their hit-and-run attacks' tabhshment of the KDP in 1946 ~- in oragainst
Turkish targets. The PKK had also imRQ- der not to endanger their ties with Tursed
embargoes on the humanitarian aid supply for key..
the Iraqi Kurds last year prior to the Turkish operation,
which had been one reason for the Iraqi
Kurds' collaboration with the Turkish armed forces
in the cross border operation .
Another reason for the current "cold" atmosphere
between the PKK and the Iraqi Kurds, as tenned
by a high-rankin~ KDP official, is that the PKK is
seen as competitIOn for the traditional Iraqi Kurdish
leadershIp. This can be seen in the closure of
the lrbil office of a pro-PKK magazine, Welat, last
month, after the magazine failed to apply to the
PKK abducts
fou r tau rists
• West resists PKK demands
for talks on hostages
• Three Swiss and one Italian
who were kidnapped are all
Jehova's Witnesses
ReUler/(fDN
ANKARA- Seccessionist Kurdish militants have kidnapped
four Afghan tourists and two Turks from a bus
at a roadblock in southeastern Turkey, officials said on
Monday.
Officials in Diyarbakir said the abductions took place
at about 10 p.m, (2000 GMT) on Sunday near the village
of Bahçeci in Batman province on the road between
Van and Diyarbaktr. With the latest kidnappings the
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