ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', Lawmakers in Iraqi Kurdistan demanded Friday that neighboring Turkey apologize for a week of airstrikes across their border and called for a closure of Turkish military bases inside Iraqi Kurdish territory. Tensions have flared between Turkey and Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdistan region after local officials reported a Turkish airstrike killed seven civilians Sunday, triggering protests in the Kurdish capital of Erbil and other towns. Turkey launched its first strikes in more than a year on suspected Kurdish PKK rebel bases in Iraqi Kurdistan after more than 40 members of its security forces were killed in Turkey over the last month in PKK assaults. Iraq's Kurdistan parliament, Erbil. There has been no official comment from Turkey on the civilian deaths. But Iraqs central government has summoned the Turkish ambassador to demand an end to airstrikes and the regional Kurdish government condemned the deaths. We demand an end to the presence of Turkish military bases and their intelligence agencies in Kurdistans territory, the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament said in a statement. We demand the Turkish government make a formal apology to the people and the Kurdistan government. Iraqs Foreign Ministry says Turkey still has around 1,300 military in Iraq at small observation posts set up in the 1990s with the permission of Baghdad. Turkey and Iran often shell inside Iraqi territory to hit bases run by the PKK, or the Iranian PJAK. From August 17, Turkish jets carried out air strikes against a Kurdish PKK separatist group's bases in Iraqi Kurdistan region, under justification of chasing elements of the anti-Ankara PKK,www.ekurd.netforcing large numbers of Kurdish citizens of those areas to desert their home villages, including an air raid that killed 7 Kurdish civilians in a village north of Kurdistans Sulaimaniyah city on August 21st. Semi-autonomous since 1991, Iraqi Kurdistan is often called the other Iraq because it is a relative safe haven that does not suffer the almost daily bombings and assassinations the rest of the country still faces. Since it was established in 1984, the Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. But now its aim is the creation an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels. PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution. Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations. The PKK is considered a 'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union's terror list. http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2011/8/state5377.htm
