Abdurrahman: Just as we have never had relations with the PKK in the past, so we do
not want to form ties with them now
 

Nov 25, 2000
Ankara - Turkish Daily News

The Iraqi Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP) foreign relations head Sami Abdurrahman has said
that any solution in northern Iraq has to take into account the territorial integrity of Iraq and
added that his party supported Iraq's territorial integrity, the Anatolia news agency reported
yesterday.

Abdurrahman was in Arbil to observe the Turkmens assembly and told Turkish journalists they
were still waiting for the Iraqi administration to make peaceful overtures, adding that nothing of
that nature had been heard from Baghdad since 1991.

Abdurrahman noted that the region had undergone tremendous change in recent years and
recalled the "Parliament" established in the region reached a unanimous verdict in 1992 on the
need for sovereignty. He said that any forming of an independent state would not be practical.

Noting that the KDP's relations with Turkey were "very good," Abdurrahman said they were
going to get even better. He said the KDP was very pleased with Turkey's disposition in the
region. He added that developments over the last 10 years had not harmed Turkey. On the
contrary, he said, they had been to the benefit of Turkey's economy with over 80 percent of
goods sold in markets and shops in the region were from Turkey.

On the subject of the Turkmens, Abdurrahman said the Turkmens had no problems in the
fields of education and the media. He said the Iraqi-Turkmen Front ran several primary and
secondary schools and that they had two television and numerous radio stations and
newspapers.

In response to journalists' questions regarding the Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK),
Abdurrahman said the biggest problem was a lack of trust. "This distrust can be overcome
with time. The agreements made so far, if stuck to, will result in elections. Whoever wins will
have the authority," he said. Referring to PUK demands for 50/50 administration, Abdurrahman
said, "We tried that before and it did not work then."

Touching on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist terrorist organization,
Abdurrahman said: "We have never had relations with them in the past and we are not going
to form any now. They have attacked us in the past and razed our villages to the ground." He
added that the PKK was largely being sheltered in PUK-held territory and that their presence
had been mostly wiped out from KDP territory.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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