US BLAMED FOR FAILURE TO DIMINISH PKK PRESENCE IN IRAQ

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 9 2007

The failure of American plans to curb terrorist activities in
northern Iraq was brought up by Turkish deputies at a meeting
in Washington, where they said that the fight against separatist
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq had fallen
short of expectations.

The deputies also appealed for help from neutral countries to increase
dialogue between Turkey and Armenia before the Armenian "genocide bill"
comes to table at the US Congress. Although the United States could
have fought in northern Iraq against the terrorist PKK in many ways,
the only thing the US administration did was appoint a coordinator,
said Turhan Comez of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK
Party) at a meeting at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Speaking of his meeting with Joseph Ralston, a retired American
general who was appointed to coordinate American plans to reduce
the PKK presence in northern Iraq, Comez said that when the American
troops went to attack the Mahmur Camp, they found the camp evacuated
well before the planned operation began. Although Ralston said the
American military has no idea where the PKK militants might have gone,
Comez referred to personal information from Turkmens in Kirkuk who
alleged that some PKK militants were in hiding in Kirkuk.

Orhan Ziya Diren of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)
said if the planned referendum is to be held in Kirkuk in 2007 and if
it yields a result that links Kirkuk to a Kurdish area in Iraq, then
a civil war will likely follow that would last for several decades —
a serious concern for the Turkish government. The problem stems from
plans to create a demographic change in the area, said both Diren
and Comez, arguing that there are Kurdish people who have no idea
whatsoever why they are brought there from other parts of the country.