TURKISH MINISTER CALLS FOR US ACTION AGAINST KURDISH GUERRILLAS
By Al Pessin
Voice of America
Oct 21 2007
Turkey’s defense minister told U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates the
United States must take "tangible action" against Kurdish guerrillas
in Northern Iraq, whose latest attack killed at least 12 Turkish
soldiers, wounded 16 and left 10 missing. But the minister also
indicated unilateral Turkish action is not imminent. The men spoke
after a meeting in Kiev Sunday, and VOA’s Al Pessin reports from the
Ukrainian capital.
Turkey’s Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul (l) with his U.S. counterpart
Robert Gates, Kyiv, Ukraine, 21 Oct 2007 Turkish Defense Minister
Vecdi Gonul emerged from a half-hour meeting with Secretary Gates
saying Turkey wants U.S. action.
GONUL: "So far, we shared intelligence and they did some things, but we
would like to have something tangible, tangible. We are expecting this.
PESSIN: "Tangible military action, you mean?"
GONUL: "Any kind of tangible actions."
Minister Gonul said the Turkish people are suffering from the attacks
by group known as the PKK, and, in his words, "our boys are dying."
But at the same time, he indicated that while Turkish military planners
are working on a possible incursion into Iraq, authorized by parliament
last week, action is not imminent.
"Not urgently," said Vecdi Gonul. "They are planning. They are planning
to cross [the] border because, firstly, the intelligence is important,
getting enough information. And we [would] like to do these things
with the Americans."
Secretary Gates welcomed that approach.
"I am heartened that he seems to be implying a reluctance on their
part to act unilaterally, and I think that is a good thing," said
Robert Gates.
But the secretary would not say what action the United States is
prepared to take, short of more intelligence sharing.
"We have done a number of things in terms of cooperating with the
government of Turkey," he said. "I think that the first and foremost
challenge that we face, as is so often the case with terrorism,
is actionable intelligence. And I told him that lacking actionable
intelligence, for them to send a large force across the border without
any specific target was likely to lead to a lot of collateral damage
that nobody needed."
Secretary Gates says he and his Turkish counterpart also discussed the
pending U.S. congressional resolution that would label the Turkish
mass killing of Armenians early in the last century a ‘genocide.’ A
U.S. official says Secretary Gates told Minister Gonul a Turkish
attack inside Iraq would make it more likely the resolution might
pass, which the secretary believes would hurt U.S.-Turkish defense
cooperation, crucial to the U.S. effort in Iraq. Secretary Gates says
he also called on Turkey to pursue reconciliation with Armenia.
Secretary Gates said he repeated his view that a Turkish military
incursion into Iraq would be bad for all concerned.
"I told him that restraint should not be confused with weakness,
that a major cross-border operation would be contrary to Turkey’s
interests, as well as to our own and that of Iraq," said Secretary
Gates. "I told him that we should work together on this."
Secretary Gates and Minister Gonul met on the sidelines of a conference
of the Southeastern Europe Defense Ministers’ group.
Minister Gonul reports the Turkish Prime Minister will visit President
Bush in two weeks, but he would not promise Turkey will hold its
reaction to the latest Kurdish attacks until then, saying the decision
on when to act is a tactical matter.