U.S., Turkey Fail To Agree on PKK Problem Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> User-Agent: eGroups-EW/0.82 X-Mailer: Yahoo Groups Message Poster X-Originating-IP: 66.94.237.38 X-eGroups-Msg-Info: 1:12:0:0 X-Yahoo-Post-IP: 68.98.145.15 From: "David Bier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Yahoo-Profile: bafsllc Sender: osint@yahoogroups.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list osint@yahoogroups.com; contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Delivered-To: mailing list osint@yahoogroups.com List-Id: <osint.yahoogroups.com> Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 02:57:06 -0000 Subject: [osint] Reply-To: osint@yahoogroups.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
"It's no longer the good old strategic partnership between the two countries," said Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. "I don't expect to see much more than a working, business-like relationship in the foreseeable future." http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3D1041027&C=3Damerica Posted 08/22/05 07:58=20=20=09=20 U.S., Turkey Fail To Agree on PKK Problem By UMIT ENGINSOY, WASHINGTON And BURAK EGE BEKDIL, ANKARA Relations between the United States and Turkey, already damaged over the 2003 Iraq invasion, took a further blow when the two NATO allies failed to agree on measures to be taken against separatist Kurdish rebels using northern Iraqi territory for attacks against Turkish targets. "We have recently discussed what can be done against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] presence in northern Iraq," a senior Foreign Ministry official in Ankara said Aug. 15. "Unfortunately, what the Americans say they can do falls short of our expectations. We understand the Americans rule out all military action and they say they can mainly work to curb the PKK's financial assets." U.S. State Department, and Turkish Foreign Ministry officials met in Washington Aug. 6 with one Iraqi Kurdish official to discuss the PKK problem. Both Ankara and Washington consider the PKK a terrorist group. "The United States says its military capabilities are limited in Iraq and that we should mainly discuss anti-PKK measures with the Iraqi government and Iraqi Kurds, who are controlling northern Iraq," the Turkish Foreign Ministry official said. "But we believe a substantial U.S. involvement is necessary to deal with the PKK military presence inside Iraq." The top priority for U.S. forces in Iraq is to fight against the ongoing Sunni Arab insurgency, mainly in the country's central regions, one U.S. State Department official said. A Different Approach Nancy McEldowney, the U.S. charg=E9 d'affaires in Ankara, said the United States would work with Iraqi and Turkish authorities to stop PKK attacks from northern Iraq into Turkey, but made no mention of a possible military action. "We want to intensify our efforts to work to shut down the financial flows that come from Europe and elsewhere in the world to provide support to the PKK," McEldowney told reporters in Ankara Aug. 9 after a meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "In a democratic and united Iraq, there is no place for terrorism. We want the Iraqi authorities to stop the terrorism that is resulting in the deaths of Turks here in Turkey." In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States, Turkey and Iraq would continue to discuss the PKK matter. "There were agreements to have follow-on discussions and to establish working groups to work on technical issues between now and then," he said Aug. 10. Nearly 40,000 people were killed between 1984 and 1999 during a PKK rebellion aimed at establishing a separate Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey, bordering Iraq and Iran. The fighting subsided in 1999 after Turkey captured the PKK's leader with American help. But the PKK canceled its unilateral cease-fire in June 2004, and has since killed nearly 200 Turkish security force members. It also has carried out bombing attacks in Turkish holiday resorts; a July attack in the western town of Kusadasi killed five people, including a Briton and an Irish woman. The PKK has safe havens in the mountains of northern Iraq bordering Turkey, and Turkish military officials estimate the group's military strength there at around 4,000 militants. Erdogan last month talked about a possible Turkish cross-border or hot-pursuit operation inside Iraq, but U.S. officials, worried about internationalization of the Iraq conflict, sternly warned Ankara that it was not a good idea. A Cooler Relationship "The present PKK problem is a casualty of Turkey's failure to help the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq," says Zeyno Baran, director of international security and energy programs at the Nixon Center, a conservative think tank in Washington. Traditionally close U.S.-Turkish defense and political ties were damaged when Turkey's parliament in March 2003 rejected a bill that would have allowed tens of thousands of U.S. troops to open a second war front from Turkey against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's forces. Since then, the relationship partly recovered after Turkey began to cooperate with reconstruction efforts in Iraq. The United States also is annoyed by the Erdogan government's close ties with the leadership of Syria, which it accuses of aiding Iraqi insurgents and supporting terrorism. President George W. Bush urged Erdogan at a June 8 meeting at the White House to back international sanctions against Syria, but the Turkish prime minister said the world should not isolate Damascus. John Sigler, a retired rear admiral and former plans and policy officer for the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for Iraq, said the United States and Turkey see the PKK problem differently. Turkey views the PKK threat as "grave" and "potentially existential," while the United States sees the PKK as a problem within its bilateral relationship with Turkey, he told an Aug. 4 panel on the PKK matter organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a conservative Washington think tank. It was not clear how the PKK rift could affect Turkish cooperation with the United States on ongoing and future critical matters like Afghanistan, Iran and the war against global terrorism. But some analysts argued that Washington and Ankara increasingly were heading in diverging directions. "It's no longer the good old strategic partnership between the two countries," said Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. "I don't expect to see much more than a working, business-like relationship in the foreseeable future." =95 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->=20 <font face=3Darial size=3D-1><a href=3D"http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=3D12heu= 6ksc/M=3D362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=3Dgroups/S=3D1705323667:TM/Y=3DYA= HOO/EXP=3D1124773044/A=3D2894321/R=3D0/SIG=3D11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.c= om/page.php?page_id=3D1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</f= ont> --------------------------------------------------------------------~->=20 -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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