USA Turkish Times - US, Turkey, step up work against PKK terrorists

US, Turkey, step up work against PKK terrorists

Bush pledges fresh help to Erdođan in fighting PKK terrorism, declaring them ‘an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States.’ Erdođan does not rule out a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to fight PKK presence there President George W. Bush, vying to avert a Turkish incursion into Iraq, Monday pledged to step up U.S. military and intelligence cooperation and a new effort to bolster military cooperation to aid Turkey's fight against the northern Iraq-based separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group.

During a meeting at the White House, Bush announced a new three-way military partnership grouping the United States, Turkey and Iraq to improve the sharing of intelligence and said Washington was considering additional steps.

“We understand there’s transit issues at airports. We understand that there’s issues with money,” Bush said. “We’re taking some steps along those lines.”

But “step one is to make sure that our intelligence sharing is good,” Bush said as he and Erdođan, who had demanded “concrete” U.S. steps against the PKK in northern Iraq, met at the White House.

“Faulty intelligence means that we can’t solve the problem. Good, sound intelligence, delivered on a real-time basis, using modern technology, will make it much easier to deal effectively” with the PKK, said Bush.

Bush insisted that the United States stood shoulder to shoulder with its NATO ally Turkey over a spate of deadly cross-border attacks by the terrorist PKK.

Bush: PKK is common enemy

Bush called the PKK “an enemy of the United States” and offered to share intelligence with Turkey to try to halt the terrorist group’s attacks. “The PKK is a terrorist organization. They’re an enemy of Turkey, they’re an enemy of Iraq and they’re an enemy of the United States,” Bush said.

He added that Erdođan had strongly urged the United States to work with Iraqi leaders to cut off money flows to the PKK and stressed that during the 90-minute discussions in the Oval Office with Erdođan “I made it very clear to the Prime Minister that we want to work in a close way to deal with this problem.”

Erdođan: Operation will be done

Erdođan has made clear he wants concrete action from Washington to combat the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has been launching attacks on Turkey from Iraqi soil. The Turkish premier welcomed Bush's commitments but said his country had no plans to withdraw some 100,000 troops massed on the border with Iraq.

“We are not after war. We have a mandate from the Turkish parliament to conduct an (anti-PKK) operation,” Erdođan said at Washington's National Press Club. “We received the mandate from Parliament and we will use it. Our target will be PKK, not civilians there,” Erdođan said calling Turkey’s allies headed by “our strategic partner United States” to be with his country in this war against terrorism.

The prime minister said Turkey was awaiting concrete action following assurances by Iraq's government that it is clamping down on the PKK.

“And so I will trust this process and we will see what takes place as this process moves along,” he said through an interpreter, while declining to say whether Turkey might now review its massed deployment of troops on the border.

“We will continue to take those precautions,” he said.

Ahead of his meeting with Bush, Erdođan warned “the Turkish people have run out of patience.”

But in an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa, Erdođan also said Turkey could call off its threatened incursion if “the Iraq government took urgent and permanent measures against the PKK in Iraqi territory.”

Erdođan is facing strong public pressure to go after the PKK after a series of attacks on Turkish soldiers in recent weeks.

Premier welcomes shelving of US ‘genocide’ bill

Meanwhile, Erdođan welcomed a decision by US lawmakers to shelve debate on a bill labeling Ottoman Empire massacres of Armenians during World War I as “genocide.”

The prime minister said the House of Representatives resolution on “the so-called Armenia genocide ... has the potential to deeply damage our strategic cooperation.”

Fierce pressure from Turkey and the White House appears to have paid off for now, with the resolution’s Democratic authors agreeing late last month to delay a full House of Representatives vote after the bill was upheld by the foreign affairs committee.

“We view this with cautious optimism,” Erdođan said at the National Press Club, thanking the Bush administration and House members who had spoken out against the resolution for fear of its damage to ties with Turkey.

“We are ready to settle accounts with our history, but our documents indicate that no such genocide took place. In fact our values do not permit our people to commit genocide,” the prime minister said.

“Those who claim it, must prove it,” he said, renewing his offer to the Armenian government to set up a joint historical commission to examine the claims of genocide dating from the dying years of the Ottoman Empire

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