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| Iraq |
| US-Turkey: New military mechanism to combat Kurdish rebels |
| 2007-11-06 |
| Istanbul - The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US president George W. Bush have agreed on a new military mechanism to fight the Kurdish rebels of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) in northern Iraq. Following their meeting at the White House on Monday, the two leaders agreed to form a tripartite military mechanism involving the deputy chief of the Turkish General Staff, General Ergin Saygun, his American counterpart General Cartwright and the commander of US troops in Iraq, General David Petraeus. Bush, for the first time, declared the PKK, which is based in northern Iraq and launching attacks into Turkey, “an enemy of the United States”. The two leaders also announced a new intelligence deal reached between the two sides. “In order to chase down people who murder people, you need good intelligence. We talked about the need for our militaries to stay in constant contact,” Bush said. According to the diplomats, this is based on the sharing of real-time intelligence which enables Turkey to act instantaneously. Erdogan who previously accused Washington of dragging its feet in giving support to Turkey's fight against the PKK, told reporters that he was satisfied and "got what he wanted". In his press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, the Turkish premier told reporters that Turkey is on the threshold of using its right to self-defence granted under international laws. “We took a (cross border) operation decision, not war. That type of decision will be determined by the military,” Erdogan said. Turkey has massed nearly 100,000 troops on the Iraqi border for a possible operation. More than 40 Turkish civilians and soldiers have been killed in PKK attacks in the past month. The public pressure on the government of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, known as the AKP, to stop the PKK attacks, is increasing day by day. Erdogan also told reporters that Turkey has started to impose an embargo to the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq. “If we can’t get what we want, there will be more sanctions” he said. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |