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Kurds Call For Talks With Turkey

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By BUSHRA JUHI, The Associated Press

Published: October 20, 2007

BAGHDAD - Kurds in northern Iraq warned on Friday that they will defend themselves against any Turkish incursion, and Iraqi leaders called on Ankara to engage in dialogue instead of threats.

Massoud Barzani, the president of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, urged Turkey to hold direct talks with his regional government but vowed to fight 'any aggression.'

Turkish officials, who have long battled Kurdish separatist sentiment at home, have balked at such talks with the Kurdish regional government in Iraq.

The strong comments from Iraq's senior Kurdish statesman came two days after the Turkish parliament voted to authorize a cross-border incursion to root out the rebels from their bases in the mountains on the frontier. There has been no sign of imminent military attacks, and the U.S. and Iraqi governments urged restraint.

'The experiences of the past years have shown that this issue cannot be solved through the course of war,' Barzani said. 'But at the same time we declare to all: If the region or the Kurdistan experiment faces any aggression under any pretext whatsoever, then we are fully prepared to defend our democratic experience and the dignity of our people and the sanctity of our homeland.'

He said Iraqi Kurds were not responsible for the fighting between Turkey and the rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK.

'Kurdistan is not responsible for the war between Turkey and the PKK,' he said. 'And we have not supported the war or the violence and bloodletting or been dragged into this war.'

He also urged Ankara to hold talks with the Kurdish authorities in the regional capital of Irbil, 217 miles north of Baghdad. 'The best solution for any problem is dialogue and mutual understanding, rather than the language of threats and blackmail,' he said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Iraq could prevent Turkish military action by eradicating Kurdish rebel bases and extraditing rebel leaders.

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