[PEN-L:30553] Turkey warns of action if Kurds form state

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Turkey warns of action if Kurds form state

By David Gardner and Quentin Peel in London
FT.com site; Sep 24, 2002


Turkey will not stand by if a Kurdish state emerges in the north
of Iraq as a result of US or international military action to
topple Saddam Hussein, a senior Turkish official said on Tuesday.

Ankara fears any assault on the Baghdad regime could lead to Iraq
fragmenting, and the conversion of the de facto Kurdish entity
just south of the Turkish border with Iraq into a state that
would encourage Turkey's Kurds to relaunch their campaign for
autonomy.

"We will not tolerate in any way the formation of a new state in
northern Iraq," Sukru Sina Gurel, Turkish foreign minister and
deputy prime minister told the FT in an interview in London.

Mr Gurel said he had spelt this out in meetings last week with
Colin Powell, US secretary of state, and vice-president Dick
Cheney. "Of course the Americans understand our position," he
said.

Turkey's anxiety about what might happen if the fall of the
Baghdad dictatorship led to Iraqi partition into a Kurdish north,
Sunni Muslim centre and Shi'ite Muslim south has grown along with
the likelihood of a war across its borders.

Last month Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, Turkey's defence minister,
threatened to put troops into northern Iraq to forestall the
Kurds consolidating power there.

Mr Gurel said on Tuesday he was making "our position as a
government clear" - after what Mr Cakmakoglu said. The foreign
minister would not be drawn on whether Turkey could accept the
formalisation of Kurdish autonomy within Iraq.

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