US SUPPORT FOR PKK COULD DAMAGE RELATIONS WITH TURKEY: PM

Agence France Presse
Oct 22 2007

LONDON (AFP) – US failure to act against Turkish Kurd rebels based
in northern Iraq threatens Anakara’s close ties with Washington,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned in an interview
published Monday.

Erdogan, who begins a two-day visit to Britain on Monday, said the
separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was hiding behind the
United States and Iraqi governments and using US weapons against
Turkish forces.

"We have told (US President George W. Bush) about this issue but
have not had a single positive result," he told The Times newspaper
in an interview given before a PKK ambush near the Iraqi border left
12 soldiers dead Sunday.

The ambush raised concerns of an imminent Turkish military incursion
into Iraq — a move staunchly opposed by the United States.

"If a neighbouring country is providing a safe haven for terrorism…

we have rights under international law and we will use those rights
and we don’t have to get permission from anybody," Erdogan said.

But military action could be avoided if the United States and Iraqis
moved to expel the PKK, close down its camps and hand over its leaders,
he added.

The prime minister, whose country is a key US ally and provides a
vital supply route for its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said
anti-US feeling was currently running high in Turkey.

He accused the US Congress of "firing a bullet" at US-Turkish relations
because of its bill condemning as genocide the deaths of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

"America might lost a very important friend," he said.

The US presence in Iraq had also fuelled resentment, he added,
assessing that Washington had failed to meet its objectives since
invading in March 2003.

"There’s no success that I can see," he added. "There’s only the
deaths of tens of thousands of people. There’s just an Iraq whose
entire infrastructure and superstructure has collapsed."

Erdogan meets his British counterpart Gordon Brown Tuesday for talks
touching on greater co-operation on security issues and Turkey’s
relations with the European Union, his office said October 18.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress