TEHRAN, Feb 20 (AFP)
Iran rejected Saturday the creation by Turkmenistan of a consortium to oversee construction of a 2.5-billion-dollar pipeline to carry natural gas across the Caspian Sea, the official IRNA news agency reported.
�This step by Turkmenistan is against the declared principles of the countries bordering the Caspian Sea and the accord is unacceptable,� said foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi.
He said Iran was opposed to any project for carrying oil or gas under the Caspian and added that the decision violated both multilateral and bilateral agreements.
�Given the current legal status of the Caspian Sea... any unilateral measure by a state bordering it is considered invalid and unacceptable,� he said.
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov said at a signing ceremony on Friday that he expected the pipeline, which will carry gas to markets in Turkey and Europe, to be built before the end of the year.
It is to pass under the Caspian via Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The project was made possible after the United States financed a feasibility study that showed the pipeline was more viable than other proposed routes through Iran.
The United States is pushing hard for a pipeline that avoids Iran and Russia and heavily lobbied Turkmenistan and its Caspian neighbours last year to shore up support for a trans-Caspian pipeline route.
But Niyazov said Turkmenistan will also continue pursuing the construction of gas pipelines through Iran to Turkey and Afghanistan to Pakistan.
The oil and gas reserves of the Caspian are thought to be the third largest in the world after the Gulf and Siberia.
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, Feb 22 (THE GLOBE)
�How would you call a man who attacked peaceful settlements and ordered the killing of people? A terrorist is the word for him�, said Kurtulus Tashkent, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Turkey to Kazakhstan. In his exclusive interview to The Globe Mr. Tashkent emphasized that many countries recognized Ocalan�s organization as a terroristic one including the United States, France, and Germany. This organization is responsible for the casualties of 30 000 innocent people, of which 5000 are elderly people, children and women. The ambassador of Turkey noted that Ocalan was wanted by many other countries and he would not get political asylum in any country to which he applied. �The arrest of this person was predetermined. Ocalan is to be tried by the independent Turkish judiciary and there is no question about handing him over to an international judiciary. There is no Kurdish problem in Turkey. Kurds enjoy equal rights with the other citizens of Turkey.�
Eugeniya Vasileva,
Doctor of historical Sciences
(specially for The Energy of Kazakhstan)
Thirty million Kurds spread across several countries of the Middle East consider themselves a people and a nation. But for at least a thousand years, their dream of a country called Kurdistan has won no territory of its own. Their ancient ambition and its frustrations, however, have suddenly become central to the geopolitics of both West and East.
Some historians consider the Kurds to be the descendants of the ancient Midians described by Csenofont and Strabon. Kurdistan is divided by the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
Kurdistan is a crescent-shaped territory of 533 000 square kilometers, 1800 kilometers long from north-west to south-east in the very heart of Western-Asia. A map submitted by Kurdish organizations to the United Nations gives the outline of the area where the Kurds make up a majority. (M. Van Bruinessen. Agha, Shaikh and State. The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan. L. 1992)
Large Kurdish diasporas also exist in the northern Iranian province Horasan (a few hundred thousand people), the former Soviet republics Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan., and in western Turkey.
In 1988, there were 23 millions Kurds in the historical Kurdistan: 11.3 million people lived in Turkish Kurdistan, 6.4 million in Iranian Kurdistan, 4 million in Iraqi Kurdistan and 1 million in Syria. (the figures from the article �Ethnical-demographic essay on South Kurdistan� in the yearbook �Races and Nations� 1989)
Despite all the human losses in wars, the number of Kurds has grown to over 30 million people.
As links between the West and Central Asia grow because of energy supplies and other resources, Kurdistan occupies an increasingly important strategic position in the Middle East. It is a mountanious country, with the Kurdish Tavr and Zagros mountain range rising higher than 500 meters. Their steep folds descend gradually into the Mesopotamia valley. Lowland valleys in the south and highlands in the east form Kurdistan�s natural borders.
The Kurds and the mountains are inseparable. Kurds ceded valleys to the Arabs, Turks and Persian people. The mountains stopped the armies and gave Kurds refuge from persecution and pursuit.
Read about the Kurdish economy, tribes, religion, language, and history in �The Energy of Kazakhstan� 02.99 monthly magazine (Addendum to The Globe Newspaper).