IRAQ: IRAQI KURDS WARN OF CLASHES IF TURKEY SENDS TROOPS IN TO KURDISH CONTROLLED NORTHERN IRAQ

Record ID: 208358

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQI KURDS WARN OF CLASHES IF TURKEY SENDS TROOPS IN TO KURDISH CONTROLLED NORTHERN IRAQ
  • Date: 23rd February 2003
  • Summary: (EU) ARBIL, IRAQ (KURDISH-CONTROLLED NORTHERN IRAQ) (FEBRUARY 23, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF KDP (KURDISH DEMOCRATIC PARTY) MILITARY BAND IN FULL DRESS UNIFORM PLAYING A KURDISH NATIONAL ANTHEM (3 SHOTS) 0.21 2. WIDE OF TRAINING CAMP/ GROUPS OF KDP SOLDIERS BEING TRAINED 0.25 3. VARIOUS OF KDP OFFICER EXPLAINING USE OF AN RPG (ROCKET PROPELLED GRENADE) (2 SHOTS) 0.43 4. SLV ANOTHER KDP OFFICER GIVING INSTRUCTIONS WITH SOLDIERS LOOKING BLACKBOARD 0.52 5. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF ARBIL TOWER HOTEL IN ARBIL 0.59 6. VARIOUS, , KDP SECURITY OUTSIDE HOTEL (2 SHOTS) 1.07 7. SMV INTERIOR HOTEL/ KDP SPOKESMAN HOSHIYAR ZEBARI SITTING DOWN AT MICROPHONES FOR PRESS CONFERENCE 1.17 8. WIDE OF JOURNALISTS 1.20 9. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) KDP SPOKESMAN HOSHIYAR ZEBARI SAYING "We will oppose any Turkish military intervention. This is our decision. No one should see that we are bluffing on this issue." 1.31 10. SMV PEOPLE LISTENING 1.36 11. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) KDP SPOKESMAN HOSHIYAR ZEBARI SAYING "We have made clear over and over again that our goal is not the establishment of an independent Kurdistan. This is our declared official position. We have made also the committment to take Turkish security issues into consideration. We have proven to Turkey in the past that we can work together and be a partner. But any intervention under whatever pretext will lead to clashes. This is very, very serious issue; we don't want to have that; it will backfire on many people" 2.19 12. WIDE OF ZEBARI LEAVING HOTEL 2.24 13. SMV DRIVER GETTING INTO CAR 2.38 14. SMV SECURITY 2.43 15. SMV ZEBARI'S CAR LEAVING 2.46 16. SLV SECURITY IN TRUCK ON THE STREETS NEAR HOTEL 2.49 17. SLV SECURITY IN STREETS/ GUN (2 SHOTS) 2.59 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ARBIL, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAF2Z5ETNZH6A2OGKUSTLENX8KW
  • Story Text: Iraqi Kurds have criticised Turkish plans to send
    troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq and warned of
    clashes between Turks and Kurds if they went ahead.



    A military band played for the benefit of the foreign
    media visiting a military training camp near the town of Arbil
    in northern Iraq on Sunday (February 23). The facility was run
    by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), one of two major
    Kurdish political groups controlling much of northern Iraq.

    New recruits are given light weapons training. Both the
    KDP and its long time political rival the PUK (Patriotic Union
    of Kurdistan) have joined an Iraqi opposition alliance to plan
    for a post-Saddam future for the country.

    But as the possibility of war against Saddam Hussein's
    government in Baghdad comes closer, Turkey has announced it
    will send troops into northern Iraq to prevent an independent
    Kurdish state emerging from the current crisis.

    Kurds control three Iraqi governorates north of the U.S.-
    and British-patrolled No Fly Zone in northern Iraq, and have
    set up a de facto independent state there since 1991.

    Turkey has a large Kurdish minority living near its Iraqi
    border and fears for its own territorial integrity if a
    Kurdish homeland enters the agenda for a post-Saddam
    settlement in Iraq.

    Turkish Foreign Minister Yakis Yasar said on Friday
    (February 21) that Turkey and the United States had agreed
    that in northern Iraq the number of Turkish troops would be
    greater than the number of U.S. troops.

    The Kurdish reaction was unambiguous.

    "We will oppose any Turkish military intervention. This is
    our decision. No one should see that we are bluffing on this
    issue," Hoshiyar Zebari, spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic
    Party, told a briefing on Sunday.

    "We have made also the committment to take Turkish
    security issues into consideration. We have proven to Turkey
    in the past that we can work together and be a partner. But
    any intervention under whatever pretext will lead to clashes.

    This is very, very serious issue; we don't want to have that;
    it will backfire on many people," he said.

    He added that a meeting has been scheduled for February 25
    between Kurdish leaders and the Turkish military at which more
    details of Turkey's plans should become clear.

    Zebari said the Kurds had no aims of establishing a
    sovereign independent Kurdistan, undermining Turkey's
    perceived need to intervene.

    He added that the Kurdish areas were politically stable,
    minimising the risk of a mass exodus of refugees from the
    region, as happened at the end of the Gulf War in 1991, when
    the Kurds rose up against Baghdad and were brutally repressed.


    Turkey has frequently cited the need to protect Iraq's
    Turcoman minority, ethnically, linguistically and culturally
    close to Turks, as another reason for sending in troops.

    But on Saturday, a senior Iraqi Turcoman official
    dismissed the need for such a move, saying it would be
    "baseless".


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