Hürriyet, Turkey
Jan 19 2007

PM Erdogan meets with US State Department official on Iraq affairs

Nicholas Burns, the Political Affairs Attache for the US State
Department, arrived yesterday in Ankara to meet with Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding US President George W. Bush’s recently
disclosed new plans for Iraq.

Erdogan and Burns met for well over an hour at the Turkish
Parliamentary buildings, with Erdogan relaying the Turkish view on
the current situation in Iraq to Burns. Sources from the capital say
that in particular, Erdogan put stress on the developments in the
northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, underscoring the sensitivity of this
city’s future from Turkey’s perspective. Erdogan also reportedly used
the meeting to warn Burns about Ankara’s discomfort with the draft
bill on the Armenian claims of genocide, a bill which is due to come
to the floor of the US House of Representatives in coming weeks.

Speaking after the meeting, Burns touched on Turkish apprehensions
about the PKK presence in the mountains near the border between
Turkey and Iraq, noting that the US planned to continue fulfilling
its promises to struggle against the PKK: "In terms of stopping the
attacks on Turkey launched by the PKK from Iraq, I believe we are the
start of a positive effort….We will continue closing down their
headquarters and bureaus."