TURKISH PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR URGENT US ACTION AGAINST SEPARATIST KURDISH REBELS
By Lily Hindy, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Worldstream
September 28, 2007 Friday 4:44 AM GMT

Turkey’s prime minister urged the United States to act against Kurdish
rebels who have escalated attacks on his country from bases in Iraq,
warning that continued inaction was harming U.S. relations with its
key Muslim ally.

Turkey has become increasingly frustrated with the U.S. for failing to
live up to promises to tackle separatist guerrillas from the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party or PKK, who have been fleeing across the border into
Iraq’s predominantly Kurdish northern provinces. Turkey massed troops
on its border with Iraq earlier this year, and officials are debating
whether to stage a military incursion.

"Our expectations are very clear on this point. The Iraqi authorities
and the U.S. must urgently take concrete measures beyond simply
paying lip service … unfortunately so far we have not seen any
concrete steps," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday
at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Under a proposed counterterrorism pact with Iraq, Turkey wants its
troops to have the right to pursue the rebels across the border,
according to Turkish media. But the agreement, which was expected to
be signed on Thursday, has yet to be approved.

The U.S. considers the PKK a terrorist organization, but officials
have been reluctant to act for fear of widening the Iraq conflict
and increasing violence in what has been Iraq’s most stable region.

Iraqi officials, already weary of what they see as domestic challenges
to their sovereignty, including the U.S. detention of Iranians in the
north and the recent killing of at least 11 Iraqis by U.S. security
contractors, are not eager to see yet another foreign force crossing
over their border.

Relations have been strained between Washington and Ankara for years,
mostly over the Iraq war. Turkey, a strategically important NATO ally,
refused to allow U.S. troops to use its territory to invade Iraq in
2003 and a recent opinion poll found only 9 percent of Turks had a
favorable view of America.

Erdogan voiced support for a timeline on the withdrawal of foreign
troops from Iraq.

"If coalition forces announce a timeline, then Iraqi forces will take
responsibility … if there’s a timeline and training they’ll take
control," he said.

The issue of a troop withdrawal has been a big factor internationally
and in the U.S. where support for the war has largely dissipated,
leaving President George W. Bush struggling to make a case for a
continued U.S. troop presence in the country.

Erdogan said he would consider letting the United States withdraw from
Iraq through Turkey. He said he would have to "assess the situation"
at the time.

Bush administration and U.S. military officials have said while Iraqi
forces are making some gains, they are not yet ready to assume full
security responsibilities.

Erdogan also reiterated strong opposition to a U.S. congressional
resolution introduced in January that would recognize the killings
of Armenians in the early 1900s as genocide.

Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey, however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying that
the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil
war and unrest. The United Nations has not recognized the killings
as a genocide.

Similar resolutions have been introduced in the U.S. before, but
were always kept from a full vote by congressional leaders. The Bush
administration has tried to quash the current resolution because of
pressure from Turkey.

"Should this draft reach the floor, and the Congress of our ally pass a
unilateral, political judgment of no legal bearing on such a sensitive
and controversial issue which is directly related to my country’s
national conscience, it will seriously impair Turkish-American
relations with wide-ranging implications in our overall cooperation,"
said Erdogan.