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Barzani says Kurdistan nation should have its own state
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region said that the Kurdistan nation should have its own state like the Turkish, Persian and Arab nations, according to the Hürriyet Daily News.
Oh boy. Try to keep this quiet a while longer, huh guys ...
As it works to deepen its relationship with northern Iraq, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said its approach toward Iraq’s territorial integrity remains unchanged despite the Iraqi Kurdish leader’s reported desire to found a Kurdish state.

“I am against the use of violence, but the Kurdish nation, as its legitimate right, should have its own state like the Turkish, Persian　and Arab nations,” Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani told an Egyptian television broadcaster, daily Milliyet reported Thursday. “We are not claiming we are stronger than them, but we have nothing less than those nations.”

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Özügergin told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that Turkey’s approach toward Iraq remains unchanged.

“I haven’t heard the statements made by Mr. Barzani, but there has been no change in Ankara’s views or attitude toward Iraq’s territorial integrity,” Özügergin told the Daily News on Thursday.

Turkey has repeatedly stressed its commitment to Iraq’s territorial integrity and political unity while at the same time working to improve its relationship with the Iraqi Kurdish leadership in the north in recent years. Ankara, however, continues to criticize Barzani for not doing enough to help Turkey fight the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Despite the disagreements over the fight against the PKK, the status of the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk and the sharing of oil revenues, Barzani’s visit to Turkey last month was deemed an important development for regional balance, especially amid the Obama administration’s plans to pull out troops from Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White 2010-07-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=301191