Iraqi priest says dialogue between Turks and Iraqi Kurds are “a step towards peace”

Rome, Italy, Jun 24, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Fr. Nizar Semaan, an Iraqi priest in Mosul, told the Vatican news agency Fides this week that meetings between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyp Erdogan and Iraqi Kurd leader Jalal Talabani (Kurd Patriotic Union) are “most important for the stabilization of the situation in Iraq.”

“Iraq’s Kurds have undertaken an important change in their policies, renouncing independence but making a request for an Iraqi federal state,” Father Nizar told Fides.

“This change has obviously been noted by Turkey. I am convinced in fact that if the rights of Kurds in Iraq are guaranteed this will lead to the same measure in the other countries where there are communities of Kurds. I think it in the interests of Turkey to reach an agreement which established peace within its own territory and along its southern borders,” the priest said.

Fr. Semaan also praised a meeting which took place between a Turkish delegation and the traditional Iraqi Kurd Massoud Barzani (leader of the Kurd democratic Party).

All together Kurds are between 20-25 million in five countries, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Azerbaijan.