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Written by The Financial Times
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Friday, 02 November 2007 |
Turkey and the US struggled on Friday to develop a common approach to dealing with Kurdish rebels at the start of four days of intensive diplomacy aimed at dissuading Ankara from sending its army into Iraq.
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, said patience and perseverance were needed to deal with PKK Kurdish separatist guerrilla fighters attacking Turkey from bases in Iraq. She said the PKK was "a common enemy" to Turks, Americans and Iraqis.
After meeting Turkish leaders in Ankara, Ms Rice said: "We all need to redouble our efforts and the United States is committed to redoubling our efforts" to fight the PKK. The group, which the US, Turkey and the European Union have branded a terrorist organisation, has killed almost 50 Turkish soldiers and civilians in recent weeks in the predominantly Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey bordering Iraq.
However, Ali Babacan, Turkey's foreign minister, warned: "This is where the words end and action needs to start."
Ms Rice is due to attend a conference of Iraq's neighbours in Istanbul on Saturday that is being overshadowed by the crisis on the Turkish-Iraqi border. Ankara has massed up to 100,000 troops there and has threatened to launch a large-scale cross-border incursion if the US and Iraq are not able to close the PKK bases.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, is due in Washington on Monday for talks with George W. Bush, US president, seen as critical to forestalling a Turkish military incursion. Mr Erdogan said Ankara was considering "an operation, not a war" across the Iraqi border and said he hoped such a development would not be necessary. |
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Written by CNN
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Friday, 02 November 2007 |
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Turkish officials Friday that Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq were a "common threat" and that the United States would help Ankara in its fight against them.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday in Ankara.
Speaking after meeting with both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, Rice said she had emphasized that the United States is "committed to redoubling its efforts" to help Turkey in its struggle against the rebel fighters.
"We consider this a common threat, not just to the interests of Turkey but to the interests of the United States as well," she said at a joint news conference with Babacan. "This is going to take persistence and it's going to take commitment -- this is a very difficult problem."
En route to Ankara, Rice told reporters that the United States, Turkey and Iraq will counter any attacks on Turkey by the rebels.
She didn't specify just what that meant but did warn against doing anything that might worsen the volatile situation on the Turkish-Iraqi border.
Washington worries that a cross-border incursion would bring instability to what has been the calmest part of Iraq, and could set a precedent for other countries, like Iran, who also have conflicts with Kurdish rebels.
But Ankara has been resolute in saying that, unless it hears concrete measures the United States will take against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, it will launch an attack.
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Written by The Times
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Friday, 02 November 2007 |
Condoleezza Rice today promised that the United States would intensify action against Kurdish rebels whom she labelled a common enemy of Turkey and the US.
The US Secretary of State, in Ankara to discuss the growing border crisis between the Turkish Government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), pledged that Washington would increase its pressure on the Iraqi Government to take concrete steps against the rebels.
Turkey has repeatedly threatened to launch a military incursion against PKK targets across the border in northern Iraq unless US and Iraqi officials take meaningful action against Kurdish separatists.
Ms Rice was today pushing for a breakthrough in negotiations between the three governments who are trying to agree a joint clampdown on the PKK, but she failed to detail any American proposals.
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“We want to look to a plan for effective action against the PKK that will require not just the US and Turkey but also the Iraqi Government,” she said.
“That is a discussion I plan to have when I see Prime Minister al-Maliki later on today.
“We consider this a common threat, not just to the interests of Turkey but to the interests of the United States as well.”
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