"The Common Destiny of Turks and Kurds
The main goals of Ankara’s Iraq policy are: 1) To prevent the establishment of a federal or independent Kurdish state with oil-rich Kerkuk (Kirkuk) as its capital that may inspire separatism among Turkey’s Kurds. 2) To ensure the elimination of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq, that infiltrates into Turkey to stage attacks. 3) To protect the rights of the Turkmen minority living in the Kurdish region. Since the Turkish nation is not based on race, and since all the major ethnic and religious groups share lineage with Turkish citizens, it is rather difficult to explain why the protection of Turkmen rights is a priority for Turkey."
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