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Iraqi PM to visit Turkey
29.7.2007
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July
29, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
will visit Turkey next month to discuss security
issues as the Turkish government weighs a possible
offensive into Kurdistan (northern Iraq) to thwart
Kurdish PKK separatists.
Al-Maliki will travel to the Turkish capital Ankara
in the second week of August, government spokesman
Ali al-Dabbagh said on Saturday. He declined to give
a more specific date for security reasons.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued
the invitation to al-Maliki earlier this month and
warned of an incursion if the United States and
Iraqi leaders failed to stem the Kurdish guerrillas
operating from bases in Kurdistan (northern Iraq).
Erdogan's party won a new mandate last Sunday, but
it faces pressure from opposition parties that say
it lacks determination to stage an incursion, a move
that could seriously strain ties with Iraq and
Turkey's NATO ally, the United States. |
Iraqi Prime minister Jawad Nuri al-Maliki |
"This visit will be a security and political one as
there are many important issues between the two
neighboring countries like the presence of PKK in
northern Iraq," al-Dabbagh said, referring to the
acronym for the separatist Kurdistan
Workers' Party PKK.
"The Iraqi government is keen to develop bilateral
relations after the elections and is looking forward
to have Turkey as an important partner to Iraq," he
added.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
AP
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