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| Iraq |
| Kurdish Leader asks neighbors not to interfere in Iraq's affairs |
| 2003-04-13 |
| The leader of Iraq's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Jalal Talebani on Saturday called on Iraq's neighbors to refrain from interfering in his country's internal affairs. Speaking in a gathering of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrians in Kirkuk, he said the Iraqi people would determine the fate of the country and there is no need of neighbors to interfere in the country's domestic affairs. He doesn't think they need any Turks to ensure that Turkmen get a bigger slice of the pie, anymore than they need any Medes or Persians to ensure that Shiites get a bigger slice... He said all Kurdish, Turkmen, Arab and Assyrian communities would continue to co-exist in their country and they would get united in reconstruction of their motherland and creation a free Iraq. Political and administrative programs should be developed soon to run the cities, he said. He cited Kirkuk as an exemplary city where all Iraqi communities from every race co-exist peacefully. The policy of the regime of Saddam Hussein consisted of sowing discord among the Iraqi ethnic groups, he said, adding that today every Iraqi national is aware that the country needs unity more than any other thing. He said the PUK would do its utmost to contribute to the administration of justice and fairness in the Iraqi society. And we wish him every success in doing that — even while we realize that forces on most of Iraq's borders will be operating against it. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Keep in mind that it goes way beyond the traditional Shi'ite/Sunni rivalries or even Turkish/Kurdish rivalries in Iraq. Syria has sponsored radical Kurdish groups (foremost among them being the PKK) and Iran sponsored the nutty Islamic ones like Komala Islamiyyah or Ansar al-Islam. All of this infighting, plus the turf war between the PUK and KDP in the early 1990s, has taken its toll on the Kurdish community. The PUK and Talebani seem to have the right idea with a federal model for the new Iraq, though. We should wish them the best. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2003-04-13 12:45:31 |