Word: kurdistan
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...Turkey will need to deal with its Kurdish problem, including ending hostilities with a militant group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who have about 3,000 guerrillas based in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish officials seem to recognize this. A trilateral commission of Iraqi Kurd, Turkish and U.S. officials meets regularly to discuss a possible PKK amnesty. Other measures on the agenda in Ankara include restoring Kurdish place-names and cleaning up the jingoistic billboards that litter the southeast. What's really needed is a more democratic constitution. But the government has backtracked on that promise before...
...helps that Turkish Kurds now have a role model of their own. Kurdistan is still a taboo word in Turkey, but Turkish Kurds have watched with fascination the developments in neighboring Iraq over the past few years. Iraqi Kurds have built up a largely self-governing region with its own parliament and flag. For the first time in history, the Kurds - an ancient people spread out across Iran, Syria, Turkey and Iraq - have what looks like a state. "The emergence of Kurdistan has fostered a sense of self-confidence here," says Sezgin Tanrikulu, a prominent lawyer in Diyarbakir. "Not because...
...spokesman for the 58-strong Kurdish bloc in the national parliament. "We, as Kurds, have the authority to defend our people; 172,000 Kurdish people were driven away from Mosul [during Saddam's Arabization period]. [The peshmerga] are to protect the Kurdish people." (Read a TIME story about Kurdistan...
...complete pullout by 2011. "I don't know if I'm a mediator," says Colonel Gary Volesky, brigade commander of the 3rd Heavy Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, stationed in Mosul, adding that his mission was to rout out insurgents. Still, Kurdish leaders, including Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of Kurdistan, have said they want the U.S. to stay not only in the cities, but also in other areas until it helps resolve outstanding Arab-Kurd issues, including territorial disputes. That's unlikely, unless the land rivalry can be resolved in the next two years...
...American military is trying to work closely. Back in the hallway with Ricky and the shaving medic, I thought about this as I interviewed an Arab soldier watching the proceedings. Pvt. Faisal told me that there would be no problems with the Kurds - "as long as they stayed in Kurdistan" - and that he was happy to see the U.S. leave...