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Iraq
Turk PM dismisses Iraq minister’s ’’stay away’’ plea
2003-09-04
EFL/FU:
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan shrugged off comments on Thursday by Iraq’s new foreign minister that Turkish peacekeeping troops would not be welcome in Iraq, saying Ankara would make its own decision.
"We’ll come if we damm well feel like it. What do you think Iraq is, your country?"
Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari said neighbouring states such as Turkey should not send troops to his country because they would pursue their own political agenda.
What he said was: ’’Our neighbouring countries have their own political agendas, which they could bring with them to Iraq, thus causing more instability in Iraq.’’There is a problem with the Turkish forces’ military intervention in the northern Kurdish areas, which created many problems and complications,’’We hope such interventions will not take place, because they would further complicate matters.’’
’’The Iraqi minister’s statement reflects his own opinion. We have special forces committees working to destablize there (in Iraq) at the moment and we will make an assessment of what we can get away with,’’ Erdogan told reporters after a cabinet meeting in the city of Sivas, 400 km (270 miles) east of Ankara. Turkey considers the mainly Kurdish north of Iraq to be theirs an area of strategic interest. It has kept a small contingent of troops there since the 1990s, combatting Turkish Kurdish separatist freedom fighters hi murat rebels operating from the mountains there. Turkey is consulting with U.S. officials and different ethnic and religious groups in Iraq on the feasibility of a Turkish peacekeeping role in that country; not in the north but probably in the central region.
The north would be bad, very bad.
Erdogan and Turkey’s powerful military establishment are known to back sending troops, on condition that the United States does more to curb Turkish Kurdish rebels, who this week called off a five-year ceasefire.
Now why do you suppose PM Erdogan dissed the Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari like that? Could it be because he is a Kurd?
Posted by:Steve

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