BUSH FACES DELICATE TALKS WITH ANGRY TURKISH LEADER
AFP
November 5, 2007
WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush Monday faces crisis talks with
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as he vies to dissuade
his war on terror ally from an incursion into Iraq to hunt down
Kurdish rebels.
Ahead of the meeting at the White House, Erdogan warned that Turkey’s
patience over cross-border attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK) was running out.
But the Bush administration, while promising US support against the
PKK, is keeping up the pressure for Turkish restraint for fear of
destabilizing one of the few calm zones of Iraq.
And as Pakistan sinks deeper into political crisis, Bush will be loath
to see any escalation in tensions between Turkey, another crucial
antiterror partner, and US allies in northern Iraq’s autonomous
Kurdish region.
In Ankara Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged to
"redouble" US efforts to combat the Kurdish rebels attacking Turkey
from northern Iraq, while warning against unilateral military action.
Rice acknowledged that the United States had an "obligation" to
help Ankara – a close North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally –
but stressed it would take time and effort to flush out the rebels.
"It is a difficult problem, rooting out terrorists. This is going to
take persistence, commitment," she said.
But for Erdogan, facing public outrage over a spate of deadly attacks
by PKK guerrillas, time is running out.
"Our visit comes at a time when [Turkish-US] relations are undergoing
a serious test," Erdogan told reporters before flying out of Istanbul
Saturday.
"We have run out of patience with the terrorist attacks being staged
from northern Iraq," he said, adding that he hoped his meeting with
Bush would produce "concrete measures."
Erdogan was being accompanied by Turkish foreign minister Ali Babacana
and defense minister Vecdi Gonul on his brief visit to Washington,
before he heads on to Rome for talks with Italian Prime Minister
Romano Prodi Tuesday.
Despite Iraq’s announcement of new steps to curb the PKK separatists,
Babacan said military options "remain on the table."
Some observers fear that US influence with Turkey has been undermined
by a push in Congress to label the Ottoman Empire’s World War I
massacre of ethnic Armenians as "genocide."
Turkey has warned that it could restrict US access to the Incirlik
airbase, a crucial staging post for US supplies bound for Iraq and
Afghanistan, if the genocide resolution passes the full House of
Representatives.
Fierce pressure from both Turkey and the White House appears to have
paid off for now, with its Democratic authors agreeing late last
month to delay a House debate on the measure.
For his talks with Erdogan, Bush has promised to lay out areas of US
cooperation against the PKK, including sharing intelligence.
"We will have a good, substantive discussion, as you would expect
allies to do. And I’m looking forward to seeing him here in the Oval
Office," Bush told reporters last week.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it did not make sense for
the Turks to send its forces across the border or dropping bombs
"without good intelligence."
Bush will be able to point to one breakthrough executed with Iraqi
help, after Baghdad helped secure the release Sunday of eight Turkish
soldiers who had been seized by the PKK in a deadly ambush and held
in northern Iraq.
"We applaud the efforts of the government of Iraq to secure the release
of the hostages," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in
a statement while accompanying Rice on a visit to Jerusalem Sunday.
McCormack urged cooperation between Iraq and Turkey in fighting the
Kurdish guerrilla movement, calling it "a common enemy of Turkey,
Iraq, and the United States."