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Turkey Reiterates Support for Iraq's Territorial Integrity
A senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official on Sunday reiterated Turkey's support of Iraq's territorial integrity.
''Turkey's policy towards Iraq has three main points. First of all, Iraq's territorial integrity is essential for us," said Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Faruk Logoglu on a weekly program of the state-run TRT television.
"Secondly, all communities living in Iraq will take a decision about the future of Iraq. And the last point is that Turkey will not allow division of Iraq," he added.
Logoglu also stressed that "Turkey will not allow the foundation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq.''
It was reported that the current situation in northern Iraq has aroused a grave anxiety in Turkish government. Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit was quoted as saying in Thursday's Hurriyet (Freedom), a mass-circulation Turkish newspaper, that a de-facto state had already been established in northern Iraq.
Ecevit also expressed his worries to Iraqi Kurdish leaders who visited Turkey recently, according to the paper.
The Prime Minister's Office circulated a secret document on a series of measures to be taken on the Iraqi affairs, including an intervention if a Kurdish state is established in northern Iraq.
Turkey is known to stand strongly against any attempt to set up a Kurdish state in northern Iraq, which may eventually include Kurds living in Turkey's southeastern regions.
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