[A-List] The Kurdistan Kontradikshun: Allawi threatens Kurds

["Stan Goff" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[The tricky part of this, of course, is that Allawi has nothing anyone
could call an army... until you count the Americans upon whom the Kurds
have counted all along.  -SG]

Iraq's interim president promises to crack down on Turkish Kurdish
rebels based in northern Iraq

By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press, 8/16/2004 10:51

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) Iraq's interim president pledged Monday that
Baghdad's new government would crack down on Turkish Kurdish rebels
launching attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq.

Some 5,000 Turkish Kurdish rebels are holed up in mountain bases in
northern Iraq, and they have recently increased attacks on Turkey.
Ankara repeatedly has called on Iraqi authorities and the United States
to crack down on the rebels.
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer pressed Iraq's president, Ghazi
al-Yawer, in talks Monday to act against the rebels. ''I told Mr.
al-Yawer that we're expecting a new Iraq not to shelter terrorist
organizations,'' he said.

''We cannot tolerate or allow any group or formation that is posing a
threat to the security of our neighbors,'' al-Yawer said at a press
conference with Sezer.
However, ''good neighborly relations mean not mingling into internal
affairs of the other,'' al-Yawer added.

Al-Yawer is in Turkey mainly to discuss security and trade a key visit
that comes just weeks after Iraqi militants took Turkish truck drivers
hostage as part of a surge of kidnappings of foreigners.

The Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy for Turkey's 12
million Kurds, a decades-long war that that has claimed some 37,000
lives. In the past, Turkey's military has waged incursions into northern
Iraq to wipe out rebel bases, and has left open the possibility of a
future incursion into Iraq to take action against the Kurds. Turkey
currently has some 1,500 troops, backed by tanks, inside northern Iraq
to monitor rebel movements.

Sezer also urged al-Yawer to take necessary safety measures for Turkish
truckers and workers in Iraq.

''We're very concerned about attacks and kidnappings targeting our
citizens, either working or carrying goods to Iraq,'' Sezer said.
''Effective measures should be taken as soon as possible.''

In the past two months, militants in Iraq have executed one Turkish
worker in Iraq and kidnapped several other truck drivers, prompting some
Turkish companies to stop doing business with the U.S.-led military in
Iraq.

Turkish and Iraqi officials were expected during al-Yawer's visit to
discuss new routes in Iraq for the safe passage of some 2,000 Turkish
trucks, ferrying goods daily to the Iraqi people and the U.S. military.
Most of the two countries' trade has been conducted in cross-border
shipments.

An Iraqi-Turkish oil pipeline has been operating only sporadically
because of violence in Iraq.

Sezer reiterated Ankara's fears that Iraq's Kurds would take over the
oil-rich Iraqi province of Kirkuk, home to tens of thousands of ethnic
Turks.

''A group's attempts to take over Kirkuk would put Kirkuk's and Iraq's
stability and peace in danger,'' Sezer said.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/229/world/Iraq_s_interim_president_promi
P.shtml