DTP official: Any Attack On Kirkuk Same As One
On Diyarbakir
The New Anatolian
23 February 2007
A pro-Kurdish political party official yesterday said that advantages won by
Kurds in northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan) should be protected, adding that any
counter move to weaken the Kurdish movement there would be much the same as
"cutting the veins of Kurds in Turkey."
"We consider an attack on Kirkuk as the same as one on Diyarbakir," said
Democratic Society Party (DTP) Diyarbakir branch head Ibrahim Aydogdu, a staunch
Kurdish nationalist, whose remarks appeared on the PUK media, website of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), directly clashing with those of Turkey.
"We see interference in the course of events in Kirkuk as totally irrational and
the imaginings of a mind refusing to understand the historical facts," he added,
referring to the approaching referendum for the future status of the oil-rich
city.
"Any military intervention from Turkey into Kirkuk would bring the Turkish state
and the Kurds against each other, which in turn would lead to a major war that
nobody would desire to see. the Kurds of Iraq and Turkey would inevitable take a
side in the case of a Turkish attack on Kirkuk. There are 20 million Kurds in
Turkey and each and every one of them would take such an attack against the
Kurds of Iraq to be an attack against them, " said DTP official
"The referendum will be a major turning point for the Kurds. It will open a new
era with the decline of the Arabization policy of Saddam Hussein in the region
and with bringing a real democratic regime in which the Kurds will take their
equal place," Aydogdu said, describing Kirkuk as a strategically important
center to give strength to the Kurds, allowing them to protect their advantages.
He also said that seeing a Kurdish leader as the prime minister of the country
is very pleasing, adding that Jalal Talabani's being the president will give
rise to the establishment of the Kurdish identity and nationalism as well as
bringing a more democratic system to the region with Kurds recognized as an
equal people in the Middle East.
He also said that Talabani and Iraqi Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP) leader
Massoud Barzani will be invited to the Newroz celebrations in the city calling
their participation a gesture to honor them.
