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Bush won't help Turkey with Kurds
9.6.2005
By Bill Sammon
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President Bush yesterday rejected a request by
Turkey for U.S. forces to crack down on Kurdish
militants who are launching attacks against Turkey
from northern Iraq.
The rejection came two years after Turkey blocked
U.S. troops from opening a northern front against
Iraq along the same stretch of border now being
traversed by Kurdish fighters.
Asked about the Kurds, who are seeking to create an
autonomous region in southeast Turkey, Bush
spokesman Scott McClellan emphasized: "We are
committed to going after and getting rid of
terrorists who are inside Iraq." |
G.W.Bush
Photo: White house |
But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
expressed his disappointment after meeting with Mr.
Bush in the Oval Office.
"We are exchanging information," he told reporters
after leaving the White House. "However, we don't
think it is sufficient. We want [U.S. assistance] to
be taken further.
"However, they seem to be focused on getting the
Iraqi administration there settled," he added. "God
willing, we will get the support of the coalition
forces and of the Iraqi forces for this struggle."
The attacks against Turkey are being waged by the
Kurdistan Workers Party, commonly known as the PKK,
which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.
"They did talk about the importance of continuing to
fight terrorism, and [that] includes going after the
PKK inside Iraq," Mr. McClellan said. "The two
leaders had a good discussion about how we can move
forward to address the threat from the PKK."
The PKK operates across the same Turkish-Iraqi
border that Mr. Bush wanted to use in March 2003 as
a way to open a northern front in Operation Iraqi
Freedom. But the Turkish parliament refused to allow
the 4th Infantry Division to set foot on Turkish
soil, which limited the U.S. to attacking Iraq from
the south.
"The past three years have involved a serious
disappointment in the U.S.-Turkish relationship,"
Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick told
Turkish officials in Washington on Tuesday.
The relationship is being further strained by
Turkey's growing ties with Syria at a time when
Damascus is allowing terrorists to move back and
forth across its own border with Iraq in order to
fight U.S. forces. Mr. Erdogan praised Syria for
capturing Kurdish rebels and sharing intelligence on
the PKK.
"We don't want to push Syria away," Mr. Erdogan told
reporters. "We talked about steps we can take to
bring them to our line."
But Mr. Zoellick said Turkey should help Syria
"recognize that fostering danger with Iraq today is
going to rebound to hurt Syria for the long term,
because Iraq is on the path up.
"And it will remember those that worked with it," he
added, "and those that tried to stop it."
Despite these difficulties, the U.S. continues to
back Turkey's ambitions for membership in the
European Union. But in the wake of France and the
Netherlands voting down the EU constitution, Mr.
Zoellick said Turkey should "look beyond the
European Union to a global context."
www.washingtontimes.com
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