Turkey Offers More Trade With Iraqi Kurds
ANKARA -- A large Turkish business delegation will head to northern Iraq Tuesday to boost trade links, despite a political chill over Turkish Kurd rebels taking refuge in the area, a newspaper report said.
State minister for foreign trade Zafer Caglayan, who will lead the 200 businessmen, voiced hope that increased economic exchanges between Turkey and its Iraqi Kurdish neighbours would help end the tensions.
"Trade is the key of politics... Improving business ties will eradicate the problems between us. Terrorism will decrease as the economy improves both in the region (northern Iraq) and in Turkey," Caglayan told the Milliyet daily.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has in the past month dramatically stepped up its violent 26-year campain for self-rule in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey.
The PKK uses mountainous bases in neighbouring northern Iraq as a launching pad for attacks inside Turkey, prompting frequent Turkish air raids on the group's hideouts there and often poisoning ties between Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds who run an autonomous administration in the region.
Caglayan, due to meet with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani Tuesday, said he would convey Ankara's expectations for stronger support against the PKK.
Turkey had often accused the Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and even aiding the PKK, but has recently shifted to a policy of seeking cooperation.
During a landmark visit to Ankara on June 3, Barzani pledged "all efforts" to stop PKK violence but hinted Iraqi Kurds were reluctant to fight their kin, stressing the need for a political solution to the conflict.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a Kurd, slammed "unilateral" Turksih action earlier this month after Turkish troops reportedly crossed into northern Iraq to pursue PKK militants after a bloody attack on a border guard.
Despite the tensions, Turkish entrepreuners have been keen on doing business in northern Iraq, amid relative peace in the region and its proximity to Turkey.
"Eighty percent of the food and clothes sold in northern Iraq are Turkish products. Turkish contractors are part of many projects in the region," Caglayan told Milliyet.
"But there is still a lot to be done -- infrastructure, hospitals, schools. Turks are the most ambitious candidates for all these," he said.
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007 06-27-2010 Bomb Kills Policeman in Iraq's Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq -- A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one officer and wounded five in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul on Saturday, police Major Fathi al-Juburi said.
Mosul has remained a hotbed of insurgent activity even as levels of political violence have fallen off in much of the rest of the country.
On Thursday, three suicide bombers killed four police and a soldier in separate attacks in the city.
The province is split between Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities who are bitterly divided over the ambitions of Kurdish leaders to incorporate large parts of it into their autonomous region in the north. It also has Assyrian, Shabak, Turkmen and Yazidi minorities.
Al-Qaida has exploited the ethnic and confessional differences to make the province one of its enduring strongholds in Iraq.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Turkey Offers More Trade With Iraqi Kurds
ANKARA -- A large Turkish business delegation will head to northern Iraq Tuesday to boost trade links, despite a political chill over Turkish Kurd rebels taking refuge in the area, a newspaper report said.
State minister for foreign trade Zafer Caglayan, who will lead the 200 businessmen, voiced hope that increased economic exchanges between Turkey and its Iraqi Kurdish neighbours would help end the tensions.
"Trade is the key of politics... Improving business ties will eradicate the problems between us. Terrorism will decrease as the economy improves both in the region (northern Iraq) and in Turkey," Caglayan told the Milliyet daily.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has in the past month dramatically stepped up its violent 26-year campain for self-rule in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey.
The PKK uses mountainous bases in neighbouring northern Iraq as a launching pad for attacks inside Turkey, prompting frequent Turkish air raids on the group's hideouts there and often poisoning ties between Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds who run an autonomous administration in the region.
Caglayan, due to meet with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani Tuesday, said he would convey Ankara's expectations for stronger support against the PKK.
Turkey had often accused the Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and even aiding the PKK, but has recently shifted to a policy of seeking cooperation.
During a landmark visit to Ankara on June 3, Barzani pledged "all efforts" to stop PKK violence but hinted Iraqi Kurds were reluctant to fight their kin, stressing the need for a political solution to the conflict.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a Kurd, slammed "unilateral" Turksih action earlier this month after Turkish troops reportedly crossed into northern Iraq to pursue PKK militants after a bloody attack on a border guard.
Despite the tensions, Turkish entrepreuners have been keen on doing business in northern Iraq, amid relative peace in the region and its proximity to Turkey.
"Eighty percent of the food and clothes sold in northern Iraq are Turkish products. Turkish contractors are part of many projects in the region," Caglayan told Milliyet.
"But there is still a lot to be done -- infrastructure, hospitals, schools. Turks are the most ambitious candidates for all these," he said.
www.middle-east-online.com
Bomb Kills Policeman in Iraq's Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq -- A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one officer and wounded five in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul on Saturday, police Major Fathi al-Juburi said.
Mosul has remained a hotbed of insurgent activity even as levels of political violence have fallen off in much of the rest of the country.
On Thursday, three suicide bombers killed four police and a soldier in separate attacks in the city.
The province is split between Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities who are bitterly divided over the ambitions of Kurdish leaders to incorporate large parts of it into their autonomous region in the north. It also has Assyrian, Shabak, Turkmen and Yazidi minorities.
Al-Qaida has exploited the ethnic and confessional differences to make the province one of its enduring strongholds in Iraq.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com