Kurdish leader says Turkey now accepts autonomy for northern Iraq

CAIRO (AFP) - Former Kurdish rebel leader Massud Barzani said that Turkey now accepted Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq, abandoning decades of opposition to any special status for the minority community.

"A Turkish delegation visited us on June 9 and told us of an extremely positive policy under which Turkey will not oppose an autonomous status for Kurdistan within a federal Iraq," Barzani told the Arabic satellite television channel Al-Jazeera.

Turkey "wants to have the best relations with the Kurdistan region alongside its relations with the Iraqi government," said Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two former rebel groups that run rival administrations in northern Iraq.

Barzani said the Turkish delegation had also delivered an invitation to visit Ankara, which he had accepted.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=afp/iraq_kurds_turkey

If Kurds feel Turkey will not attack them anymore, will they feel freer to say to "Sovereign Iraq" go jump in a lake?

for this to work. if the iraqi kurds stir up trouble in the kurdish reigon of turkey, then watch out.