Turkey to Lobby U.S. Over Kurd rebels in Iraq
By Paul de Bendern
February 4, 2007
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan, facing pressure on security issues ahead of elections, will send
his foreign minister to Washington next week to lobby for a crackdown on Kurdish
rebels in northern
Iraq.
Ankara has repeatedly threatened to send troops
into northern Iraq to crush Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels if U.S. and
Iraqi government forces fail to take action, though most analysts dismiss the
threats as rhetoric to impress voters.
There are presidential and parliamentary polls
in 2007.
Against a backdrop of rising nationalism in
Turkey, partly due to disillusionment with the European Union accession process,
the ruling centre-right AK Party says it cannot stand idly by if PKK attacks
resume as expected in the spring.
Ankara says some 4,000 PKK rebels are based in
northern Iraq from where they stage attacks into Turkish territory.
Since the PKK launched its armed campaign for a
Kurdish homeland in 1984 more than 30,000 people have been killed, mostly in
Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will hold talks
with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
"Gul will seek U.S. support in cracking down on
PKK terrorists. It's a major security concern for us," said a Turkish diplomat.
"We can't just sit on the sidelines when our
boys are being killed. We have been promised action but seen few results."
IMPORTANT ALLY
Relations between NATO member Turkey and the
U.S. have improved after a low in 2003 when Ankara denied U.S. forces permission
to use its territory for the Iraqi invasion, but Gul will still face a tough
time.
While the Americans value Turkey as an ally --
the country's neighbors include Iraq,
Iran and Syria -- and consider the PKK a terrorist organization, Washington
may be wary of a crackdown in northern Iraq because the area is a rare haven of
relative calm in a country ablaze.
Turkish media have said the government may
propose a compromise deal where Turkish, U.S. and Iraqi forces jointly carry out
attacks against PKK targets.
Armed forces chief General Yasar Buyukanit will
follow in Gul's footsteps a week later for talks with Cheney, Defense Secretary
Robert Gates and Hadley -- also focused on Iraq.
"This will be a more important meeting as the
U.S. military has no love lost for Turkey," said CNN Turk diplomatic editor
Semih Idiz.
"The Turkish military is concerned that the
Americans are in cahoots with the (Iraqi) Kurds and in contact with the PKK."
Talks will also probably touch on Kirkuk, an
ethnically-mixed northern Iraqi city which has vast oil reserves.
Kurds want to annex the city for their capital
and Iraq's new constitution mandates a local referendum on the issue later this
year.
Turkey is worried that greater autonomy for the
Kurdish-controlled area will threaten Turkey's own security and has said it
wants the referendum postponed.
