ANKARA, June 25: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani dismissed as ‘unrealistic’ aspirations by Iraqi Kurds for independence in their northern enclave and urged Turkey to set aside its doubts and give backing to Kurds in his country.

“I never thought or championed that Kurdistan should break off from Iraq ... because these dreams are unrealistic and impracticable,” Mr Talabani, the leader of a Kurdish faction who has long been at odds with Turkey, said in an interview with the Turkish Aksam daily.

“Let us say a Kurdish state were set up. How could a state opposed by Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq live? These countries could suffocate the Kurdish state even if they did not attack it,” he added.

Turkey has long shared fears with Iran and Syria that Iraqi Kurds are plotting to break away from Baghdad, setting a destabilizing model for Kurdish communities in these three countries and triggering fresh regional turmoil.

Ankara welcomed Mr Talabani’s election as president in April, hoping that high-level Kurdish participation in Iraq’s administration will dilute their separatist ambitions.

Extending an olive branch to Ankara, Mr Talabani hailed Turkey as an important regional player that should stand by the Kurds of northern Iraq.

“A democratic Turkey is of strategic importance for the Kurds,” he said. “The Shias

in Iraq have support from Iran and the Sunnis from Arab countries. We have and should continue to have support from Turkey.”

The Iraqi president also assured Ankara that Baghdad was against the presence of Turkish Kurd rebels hiding in the mountains of northern Iraq, but underlined that his country currently lacked the means to eradicate them.

“We have neither an army nor any security forces. Furthermore, we are going through difficult days in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

Turkey has long asked Baghdad and US forces in Iraq to clamp down on militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who it says have increasingly begun to penetrate the border to engage in anti-government activities on Turkish soil. —AFP