PRESS AVAILABILITY WITH TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER ALI BABACAN
State Department Documents and Publications
November 2, 2007
Secretary Condoleezza Rice Ankara, Turkey November 2, 2007
[parts omitted]
QUESTION: (Via interpreter.) Secretary Rice, in the statement that you
made previous to coming here regarding a possible military operation
by Turkey, you have indicated that you were trying to discourage a
cross-border operation that would destabilize Iraq. But you may as
well recognize that stability in Iraq has been not in place. And
you’ve referred to northern Iraq as Kurdistan a few times.
Is this something that you’re doing with specific purpose or was
this unintentional" Because we know that you, obviously, respect the
territorial integrity of Iraq as well.
And I also want to bring up the issue of the 1915 events as they’re
being taken up in the American House of Representatives. This is
perceived in Turkey as a card that’s being used against Turkey. Is
there anything that you can say about this as well?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, on the House resolution and
the events of 1915, I think it’s clear, and we’ve received from our
Turkish colleagues an expression of gratitude for how hard the United
States Government worked to see that this resolution would not pass,
not because we are unconcerned about the historical events (inaudible)
there, where they were tragic and brutal events, but because we do
not believe that this resolution would have served any good purpose.
And we’re going to continue to work against the resolution. We are
encouraging Turkey and Armenia to come together both to address their
history, but also to address their future, because these two countries
are going to prosper better in a circumstance in which there are
relations between Turkey and Armenia. And so that would be our hope.
As to northern Iraq, nobody is a stronger supporter of a unified Iraq
than the United States and than I am, on behalf of the United States.
There is a Kurdish Regional Government. We expect that Kurdish Regional
Government to exercise its responsibilities as well for what happens
in territory in which it is governing. But the north of Iraq and
all of Iraq are part of a single, unified Iraq. The United States
does not stand for the partition of Iraq. I said this yesterday to
a group of Iraqis. And I would just note that I haven’t heard Iraqis
talking about a partition of their own country, and so obviously the
territorial integrity is important.
As to the stability of northern Iraq and of this region, it is
absolutely the case that there cannot be terrorism emanating from
that territory or it will contribute to instability in northern Iraq.
But any actions that we take need to be both effective and need to
reinforce our overall goal of a stable and unified Iraq that can be
a good neighbor for Turkey and for the other neighbors who will be
gathering at this conference in Istanbul.