CHENEY REASSURES ANKARA ON US STANCE AGAINST PKK

Today’s Zaman
March 26 2008
Turkey

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdohan yesterday expressed satisfaction
over seeing a constant US determination to assist in the fight against
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq during
his meeting with US Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday in Ankara,
the last-stop of Cheney’s 10-day regional tour of the Middle East.

Erdohan’s remarks came in Sarajevo, where he paid an official
visit as part of a Balkans tour that will last until Friday. He was
speaking at a joint press conference following a meeting with his
Bosnian counterpart, Nikola Spiric, when he was asked whether he was
satisfied with the messages he got from Cheney concerning Turkey’s
fight against terrorist threats posed by the PKK, which has been
using northern Iraq as a launch pad for attacks on Turkey.

"I saw exactly the same determination concerning northern Iraq and
the separatist terrorist organization which I had observed during my
meeting in the US with President Bush on Nov. 5, 2007, with Mr.

Cheney," Erdohan was quoted as saying in response by the Anatolia
news agency.

"The separatist terrorist organization PKK is a common enemy of Iraq,
America and Turkey. This has been confirmed [during Cheney’s visit],"
Erdohan added, noting that Turkey and the United States would continue
common efforts against the PKK, with the latter continuing intelligence
sharing with Turkey.

At a landmark November meeting with Erdohan at the White House,
Bush had declared the PKK "a common enemy" for Iraq, Turkey and the
United States. The meeting and Bush’s declaration had paved the way
for US intelligence assistance to Turkey for strikes on PKK targets
inside Iraq following a lengthy period of complaints on the Turkish
side about US inaction on the PKK issue.

US officials have long called for non-military measures to address
the PKK problem. The Turkish government has said it was planning such
measures to aid in the dissolution of the terrorist group, but that
it categorically rejects any proposals for dialogue with the PKK.

Cheney’s visit came only weeks after a Turkish ground incursion into
northern Iraq. The Turkish military began a ground offensive against
the PKK in northern Iraq on Feb. 21 and announced that troops were
being withdrawn on Feb. 29. The offensive, the biggest anti-PKK
operation in a decade, apparently had US consent, but Washington
underlined repeatedly that it must be limited in length and scope
to avoid damaging Iraq’s stability. Turkish officials said the
US provided intelligence support for the operation. "If need be,
operations will continue — again in coordination. Regardless of
what form they may take, instruments for combating terrorism will
be used at the appropriate time and place. This is of course not
solely military. This has political, diplomatic, socio-economical,
psychological and cultural dimensions," Erdohan also said in Sarajevo.

The prime minister, meanwhile, reiterated that Cheney had not requested
that Turkey send more troops to Afghanistan.

The United States is pressing NATO allies to provide more support
for Afghanistan, and it will be a key issue next month at the NATO
summit in Bucharest.

Cheney was told during his talks in Ankara that Turkey was going to
stay engaged in Afghanistan, but he received no immediate commitments
about doing more, a senior US administration official told reporters on
Monday, following the US vice president’s talks with Erdohan, President
Abdullah Gul and Chief of Turkish General Staff Gen. Yaþar Buyukanýt.

Following the talks, speaking to reporters during a reception held
on Monday evening, Buyukanýt also reiterated Turkey’s opposition to
sending more troops to Afghanistan when the army was fighting the
PKK elsewhere.

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Cheney : Bush specifically added Turkey to my tour US Vice President
Dick Cheney has stated that US President George W. Bush wanted him
to particularly include Turkey in a regional Middle East tour that
he completed with talks in Ankara on Monday. Cheney’s remarks came
in an interview when he was reminded of the fact that he was on the
front page of newspapers this week, despite his consistent stance of
keeping a certain distance from the media.

"He [President Bush] wanted me to come make these various stops. We
worked out the schedule together on whom I would see and where I would
go. He specifically added Turkey to my schedule as a stop he wanted
me to make. So I’m here to some extent at his behest," Cheney said
during the interview, which was held at US Ambassador to Turkey Ross
Wilson’s residence in Ankara on Monday. A transcript of the interview
was posted on the White House Web site.

This was Cheney’s first visit to the Turkish capital since one in
March 2002 in the run-up to the US-led invasion of neighboring Iraq.

In March 2003, the Turkish Parliament narrowly rejected a government
motion asking for permission to militarily cooperate with the US in
opening a northern front from Turkish territory in the war on Iraq.

The event triggered a serious crisis with the US, which has only
recently been overcome with concrete US help in Turkey’s fight against
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq.

In Ankara, diplomatic sources described Cheney’s visit as "a new step
added to the trend of improvement in Turkish-US relations." The same
sources called a White House meeting on Nov. 5 of last year between
Bush and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdohan a "U-turn" in relations
that were "almost headed into a crisis situation last year with US
inaction against the PKK and a resolution pending in the US Congress
for official recognition of the controversial World War I-era killings
of Anatolian Armenians as genocide." Ankara Today’s Zaman

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