Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
February 5, 2008 By Alissa J. Rubin and Sabrina Tavernise
BAGHDAD — Turkish warplanes bombed villages in Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday as the Kurds came under pressure on several fronts. Representatives in Parliament discussed the Kurdish share of the budget, and the Turkmen, a minority group primarily in northern Iraq, declared that they would no longer support efforts to hold a referendum on whether the city of Kirkuk should join the Kurdistan region.
In a statement on its Web site, the Turkish military said it had struck 70 targets in the Avashin and Hakurk districts in a 12-hour bombing run that began at 3 a.m. The military did not give details on damage or deaths. It said the targets were in 11 places.
Turkey’s military has been fighting a militant fringe of its ethnic Kurdish minority for decades. The militants, known as the Kurdistan Workers Party, hide in Turkey and Iraq. They are trying to force Turkey to give greater rights and recognition to its minority Kurds.
Though the extent of the damage from the bombing on Monday was not clear, it was not the largest airstrike that Turkey has conducted since beginning military action on Dec. 1. It claimed to have bombed 200 targets on Dec. 16.
Kurdish military sources said they did not believe that anyone had been killed in the bombing. Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Peshmerga Ministry in Kurdistan, said the Turks believed that the area was used by the Kurdistan Workers Party, but “there was no damage because this area had been deserted because of the tensions.”
Haval Rosh, a spokesman for the militants, said the group had abandoned the area and no longer had bases there.
In Parliament, representatives delayed a vote on the budget because of continued disagreement over how much the Kurdistan region should receive. There was also frustration among some members who said the government had not fully explained the budget’s expenditures.
On the issue of Kirkuk, there is a growing dispute about the validity of the constitutional requirement that the city must hold a referendum to determine whether it will join the Kurds’ semiautonomous region. The referendum was supposed to be held by the end of 2007, but was delayed, and now the Turkmen, one of several minority groups in Kirkuk, are arguing that the window is closed and the city should not hold the referendum.
The referendum, provided for in Article 140 in the Iraqi Constitution, has long been a contentious issue. Non-Kurdish groups have feared that the Kurds would win by bringing in Kurds from outside the Kirkuk area to vote. The right to include Kirkuk in the Kurdistan region has been an article of faith for the Kurds, who see it as a way to right the wrongs of Saddam Hussein, who forcibly replaced many of the Kurds there with Arabs during the 1980s.
In a meeting on Monday in Baghdad, representatives of several Turkman groups agreed that regardless of sect — there are Sunni and Shiite Turkmen — they would stand together in opposition to holding the referendum. “Our meeting in Baghdad is a letter to the world that the Turkmen are united and they agree that they reject Article 140,” said Narmeen Mufti, a spokeswoman for the Turkman Front, the main Turkman party in the Kirkuk area.
The Kurds do not accept that view, and the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, has spent the past several days in Kirkuk trying to work out a compromise.
Qais Mizher contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Kirkuk.
February 5, 2008 By Alissa J. Rubin and Sabrina Tavernise
BAGHDAD — Turkish warplanes bombed villages in Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday as the Kurds came under pressure on several fronts. Representatives in Parliament discussed the Kurdish share of the budget, and the Turkmen, a minority group primarily in northern Iraq, declared that they would no longer support efforts to hold a referendum on whether the city of Kirkuk should join the Kurdistan region.
In a statement on its Web site, the Turkish military said it had struck 70 targets in the Avashin and Hakurk districts in a 12-hour bombing run that began at 3 a.m. The military did not give details on damage or deaths. It said the targets were in 11 places.
Turkey’s military has been fighting a militant fringe of its ethnic Kurdish minority for decades. The militants, known as the Kurdistan Workers Party, hide in Turkey and Iraq. They are trying to force Turkey to give greater rights and recognition to its minority Kurds.
Though the extent of the damage from the bombing on Monday was not clear, it was not the largest airstrike that Turkey has conducted since beginning military action on Dec. 1. It claimed to have bombed 200 targets on Dec. 16.
Kurdish military sources said they did not believe that anyone had been killed in the bombing. Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Peshmerga Ministry in Kurdistan, said the Turks believed that the area was used by the Kurdistan Workers Party, but “there was no damage because this area had been deserted because of the tensions.”
Haval Rosh, a spokesman for the militants, said the group had abandoned the area and no longer had bases there.
In Parliament, representatives delayed a vote on the budget because of continued disagreement over how much the Kurdistan region should receive. There was also frustration among some members who said the government had not fully explained the budget’s expenditures.
On the issue of Kirkuk, there is a growing dispute about the validity of the constitutional requirement that the city must hold a referendum to determine whether it will join the Kurds’ semiautonomous region. The referendum was supposed to be held by the end of 2007, but was delayed, and now the Turkmen, one of several minority groups in Kirkuk, are arguing that the window is closed and the city should not hold the referendum.
The referendum, provided for in Article 140 in the Iraqi Constitution, has long been a contentious issue. Non-Kurdish groups have feared that the Kurds would win by bringing in Kurds from outside the Kirkuk area to vote. The right to include Kirkuk in the Kurdistan region has been an article of faith for the Kurds, who see it as a way to right the wrongs of Saddam Hussein, who forcibly replaced many of the Kurds there with Arabs during the 1980s.
In a meeting on Monday in Baghdad, representatives of several Turkman groups agreed that regardless of sect — there are Sunni and Shiite Turkmen — they would stand together in opposition to holding the referendum. “Our meeting in Baghdad is a letter to the world that the Turkmen are united and they agree that they reject Article 140,” said Narmeen Mufti, a spokeswoman for the Turkman Front, the main Turkman party in the Kirkuk area.
The Kurds do not accept that view, and the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, has spent the past several days in Kirkuk trying to work out a compromise.
Qais Mizher contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Kirkuk.