Rome, 23 April (AKI) - The president of
Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Masoud Barzani has said his region has no
hostile intentions against Turkey pointing to growing business ties with its
neighbour as proof of this. "There are some 400 Turkish companies in Kurdistan
doing business for a total of 4 billion euros," Barzani said. But he warned
Ankara not to meddle in the region's affairs.
Turkey has repeatedly accused Kurdistan of allowing the separatist Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) to use its territory as a springboard for attacks against
Turkish targets and has threatened to lauch cross-border raids to destroy
alleged PKK bases in Iraq. Barzani rejected these claims, when asked by
Adnkronos International (AKI) in an interview.
"We respect our neighbours and we don't want to interfere in their internal
matters, but they mustn't interfere in ours," said Barzani who was in Rome to
attend the congress of the Margherita (Daisy) party a leading group in Italy's
governing centre-left coalition .
"The main problems afflicting Iraq are the war between the [Arab Muslim]
Shiite adn Sunni communities and the war that terrorism is waging against
Iraq," Barzani said.
Iraqi Kurds "have not participated in these wars and will never do so," he
added.
As for the issues of Kurdish separatism in Turkey, Barzani said "the problem
is that Turkey does not want to accept that the conflict with the PKK is an
internal matter."
