Turkish fiery statements rejected- Kurdistan spokesman

VOI - by Chiman Salh

Arbil – Iraq's Kurdistan presidency spokesman rejected on Friday statements recently made by Turkish officials on Kirkuk calling such statements "meaningless."

"We for a while have heard of meaningless statements by some Turkish officials that implied threats and we want to remind them of that the Ottoman empire had fallen a long time ago and Iraq is not part of Turkey," the spokesman said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The Kurdish statements came in reply to what the Kurds saw as threats made by the Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he indicated last week that Turkey will no sit idle if the Iraqi Kurds controlled over the oil rich city of Kirkuk.

Erdogan said in a Turkish parliament session that efforts are under way to change the demography of Kirkuk population and Turkey will not tolerate such attempts.These endeavors, the Turkish Premier remarked, may lead to a situation harmer than civil war in Iraq and may affect the region as a whole.

The oil-rich-Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad, is a mixed city of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmans.

Iraq's Kurdistan statement urged Turkey to assist Iraq and not to interfere in its internal affairs.