Jordan Times
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Jordan, Turkey warn
against dividing Iraq, endangering region
Agencies
JORDAN AND TURKEY warned Saturday against
dividing neighbouring Iraq along sectarian lines, saying that would spark civil
war in the already violence-wracked nation and endanger the whole region.
"A division of Iraq would mean a descent into the abyss and a civil war that...
would also have dangerous repercussions for all neighbouring countries," Prime
Minister Marouf Bakhit told a press conference with visiting Turkish
counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"We are coordinating with several countries in the region who want peace and
stability for Iraq," Bakhit said.
Many of Iraq's neighbours fear rising violence combined with a constitution that
enshrines federalism will lead to the country's breakup into Shiite, Sunni and,
of particular sensitivity to Ankara, Kurdish zones.
Erdogan warned that Turkey "will not accept a division of Iraq.... We consider a
division of Iraq into three regions as the start of a civil war". Turkey has its
own restless Kurdish minority, and many Kurdish separatist rebels are based in
northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous area.
"Those who play a bad role to divide Iraq will never be pardoned, neither by
history nor by humanity," said Erdogan, in Jordan on a three-day visit during
which he was also to meet with King Abdullah.
"We cannot, as Iraq's neighbour, remain neutral and we need to deploy efforts to
help it out of the crisis," he said, proposing a new meeting of Iraq's
neighbours to discuss the situation there.