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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan urged President Bush to act against Kurdish
separatists in
northern Iraq during a telephone call
on Tuesday, Turkish officials said.
Erdogan also told Bush the European Union's historic
decision last week to start accession talks with
Turkey would strengthen ties between the Muslim
nation and its NATO partner Washington, the
officials at the prime minister's office added.
"The time has come to end the PKK/Kongra-Gel's
existence in Iraq," they quoted Erdogan as telling
Bush.
The PKK, also known as Kongra-Gel, is based mainly
in
northern Iraq and has waged a separatist campaign
in southeast Turkey since 1984.
More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict,
which has fallen off since 1999. But the PKK called
off its cease-fire in June, leading to a resurgence
of violence.
U.S. forces, battling Arab insurgents elsewhere in
Iraq, have been reluctant to overstretch themselves
and take on the PKK in the relatively stable north.
Ankara, one of Washington's key regional allies, is
uneasy with the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and
refused to allow U.S. forces to invade from Turkish
soil in 2003.
Erdogan also asked for further investigation into
the killing of five Turkish security guards last
week in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Around 80 Turks
have been killed in Iraq, many of them truck drivers
transporting goods to U.S. forces.
The Turkish officials quoted Bush as saying he
supported Erdogan's proposal of a three-way security
meeting on the PKK between U.S., Iraqi and Turkish
officials.
"Once the security situation in Iraq improves, we
will be more closely involved in the issue," Bush
was quoted as saying.
Bush congratulated Erdogan for clinching a date to
begin EU accession talks next year, and the Turkish
prime minister thanked Bush for Washington's support
for Turkey's European Union bid.
"This success is the work of your leadership … It
was important for a date to be set," Bush was quoted
as saying.
Bush has personally lobbied European leaders in the
past to embrace Turkey. Washington believes a
secular Muslim democracy in Europe is a strategic
necessity to counteract the threat of Islamic
extremists.
Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service. All rights
reserved.
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