| Iraq, Turkey agree on curbing Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq |
 Pour réagir à cet article, cliquez ici
|
2 décembre 2004
|
ANKARA, Dec 2 (AFP) - Iraq and Turkey agree Turkish Kurd rebels should be stopped from using Iraqi territory for their activities, Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jafari said here Thursday, quoted by the Anatolia news agency.
"We are expending efforts to resolve the security problem as soon as possible," Jafari was quoted as saying.
The Baghdad government will not allow the use of Iraqi territory for any "terrorist" activity and will cooperate with its neighbors to establish security, al-Jafari said.
Turkey has long complained to both Baghdad and the United States of the lack of action against an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 Kurdish rebels — some of whom are reported to have returned to Turkey — who found refuge in the mountains of northern Iraq before the US invasion of the country.
Al-Jafari said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan again raised the issue again when the two met here Wednesday.
Ankara says the rebels, members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), receive military training in camps in northern Iraq and then sneak back into Turkey to conduct attacks on government targets.
The PKK, now also known as KONGRA-GEL, has waged a 15-year armed campaign for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
The group, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara as well as the United States and the European Union, ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Turkish sescurity forces in June.
|
