ANKARA (AA) - ''Return of people, who were forced to leave Kirkuk city of Iraq in the past, to the city should not be exploited. Such an attempt cause concerns not only in Turkey, but in all other regional countries,'' Turkish Foreign Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Thursday.
Gul left for Poland to attend a ceremony in which world leaders will pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp.
Holding a news conference at Ankara's Esenboga Airport prior to his departure, Gul referred to recent developments in Kirkuk city of Iraq, highlighting importance of preserving the special status of the city.
''All Iraqi people should live in Kirkuk in peace. Return of people, who were forced to leave Kirkuk city of Iraq in the past, to the city should not be exploited. Such an attempt cause concerns not only in Turkey, but in all other regional countries,'' he said.
Gul noted, ''we hope that the upcoming elections in Iraq will result in an administration representing the all sections of the Iraqi people. Turkey considers the elections as a step to normalize the situation in Iraq. Therefore, we have been supporting the elections from the very beginning.''
-CYPRUS-
Upon a question about statements of the Greek Cypriot side that the Customs Union supplementary protocol should be signed till end-February, Gul said, ''actually, the problem was resolved in Brussels. They requested us to sign the protocol unconditionally, but our government refused it. Signing the protocol and recognition of the Greek Cypriot side are two different matters. The Customs Union Agreement has been put into force automatically for the EU-member countries. Commercial goods have been exchanging freely between Turkey and the Greek Cypriot side.''
When asked whether Customs Union supplementary protocol will be signed by the end of February, Gul said, ''it is not important whether it will be signed in February or March. It will be signed in a period which we will know.''
''Turkey sincerely wants a permanent solution in Cyprus which all sides will accept. Turkey and Turkish Cypriots greatly fulfilled their responsibilities about this issue,'' he said.
-ITINERARY FOR VISIT TO POLAND-
Giving information about itinerary for his visit to Poland, Gul recalled that world leaders would pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp.
''Turkey has always been opposed to racism, discrimination and xenophobia throughout its history. On numerous occasions, we explained our views at the international platforms,'' he said.
Gul told reporters that Mehmet Ulkumen, the son of Turkish diplomat Selahattin Ulkumen who had saved 42 Jewish people from being sent to concentration and extermination camps during the Nazi era, was among those who were accompanying him.
During the two-our ceremony, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski and Israeli President Moshe Katsav will deliver a speech besides a Jewish, a gypsy and a political prisoner on behalf of the survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Some 1.5 million people, most of them Jews from across Europe, died in gas chambers or of disease, starvation, abuse and exhaustion at Auschwitz & Birkenau Camp, the most notorious of the death camps set up by Adolf Hitler to carry out his final solution, the murder of Europe's Jewish population. Soviet troops reached the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, finding some 7,000 survivors, many barely alive. The retreating Nazis had driven most of the prisoners who still had strength to walk out into the snow, on a death march toward camps further west. Six million Jews died in the Nazi camps, along with several million others, including Soviet prisoners of war, gypsies and political opponents of the Nazis.
(UK-A֩
2005-01-27