Kurdistan Observer

Barzani Says His Statements Were to Counter Turkish Threats

The Associated Press

BAGHDAD: Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani on Tuesday said remarks he made in a television interview — that drew a heated and threatening retort from Turkey — were nearly two months old and had been taken out of their chronological context.

Barzani, leader of the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq, said the interview, aired Saturday by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, had been recorded on Feb. 26, at a time when Turkey was openly challenging Iraq's government to delay a vote on the fate of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Kurds are hoping a constitutionally mandated referendum, which must be held by year's end, will allow the Kurds to attach Kirkuk and its oil riches to the Kurdish semiautonomous region just to the north.

The city had a majority Kurdish population at the time of the last census in 1957 but since then, during Saddam Hussein's rule, became heavily populated by Arabs encouraged to move to the city by the dictator in a bid force out the Kurdish population. He believed Kurds disloyal and aligned with neighboring Iran.

Since Saddam's ouster by American forces four years ago, tens of thousands of Kurds have returned to Kirkuk and the central government just decreed it would enforce a program to voluntarily resettle and compensate those Arabs who migrated to Kirkuk after 1958.

Barzani's remarks in the interview struck an extremely sensitive nerve in Turkey, where more than 37,000 people have been killed in fighting between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels since 1984, most of them in the southeastern region bordering Iraq.

Ankara is concerned that Kurdish control over Kirkuk and its oil riches will further embolden Iraqi Kurds to seek independence and could incite the estimated 14 million Kurds in Turkey into outright rebellion.

On Tuesday, Turkey's senior government and military officials discussed possible political and economic measures against Iraq if the country fails to move against separatist Kurdish guerrillas fighting Turkey.

A statement issued at the end of a four-hour National Security Council meeting Tuesday said Turkey will closely watch Iraq's response to a Turkish request that it take urgent measures against the guerrillas, who stage cross-border attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq.

"My comments were in response to Turkish threats," Barzani explained in a speech in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Irbil Tuesday.

In the interview that was aired Saturday, Barzani said, "Turkey must not intervene in the Kirkuk issue, and if it does, we will interfere in Diyarbakir (Amed) other cities in Turkey." Diyarbakir is the largest city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast.

Two days after the interview was broadcast, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iraqi Kurds against meddling in Turkey's southeastern regions. He said the "price would be very high."

The Turkish leader further said Barzani was "out of place" and would be "crushed under his words."

On Tuesday, Barzani shot back that "we heard the Turkish officials comments and threats and sometimes the use of impolite language. ... I don't understand how a country allows itself to interfere in the affairs of others and become upset when others want to interfere in their affairs."

"We don't threaten anyone and we don't accept threats from anyone," Barzani said.

Kursad Tuzmen, the Turkish minister in charge of trade, said earlier Monday: "Turkey's hand of friendship is warm and solid. But for those who don't deserve it, it is very heavy - it should never be tested." Turkey is an important trading partner for the Iraqi Kurds.

In the interview with Al-Arabiya on Saturday, Barzani said: "Turkey is not allowed to intervene in the Kirkuk issue and if it does, we will interfere in Diyarbakir's issues and other cities in Turkey." Diyarbakir is the largest city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast.

When asked about the Turkmen minority in Kirkuk and Turkey's concern for its ethnic brethren, Barzani shot back:

"There are 30 million Kurds in Turkey and we don't interfere there. If they (the Turks) interfere in Kirkuk over just thousands of Turkmen, then we will take action for the 30 million Kurds in Turkey."