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US may help Turkey combat Kurdish PKK
rebels: Gates
6.2.2010 |
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February
6, 2010
ANKARA, — The
United States may offer Turkey more help with
equipment and intelligence to combat separatist
Kurdish rebels taking refuge in the Iraqi north, US
Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said Saturday.
"I offered during my visit here to see if there are
more capabilities that we can share with Turkey in
terms of taking on this threat," he said.
In 2007, Washington had decided to provide
"significant intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance capacities and other equipments" to
Ankara to back up its efforts to eradicate the
outlawed Turkey Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), he
added after talks with Turkish leaders. |
US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates. AFP Photo |
Gates said General Ray
Odierno, the top US officer in Iraq, discussed an
"action plan" on possible further assistance with
Turkish officials when he visited Ankara earlier
this week.
"I think what we are seeing is a further
intensification of the cooperation in an effort to
deal with this threat," he said.
Turkey has long complained over thousands of PKK
rebels holed up in Kurdistan region in Iraq's north
from where believed they launch attacks on Turkish
targets across the border.
In 2008, Turkey, the United States and Iraq set up a
three-way committee to enact measures against the
PKK.
The PKK is considered a
'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S.,www.ekurd.netthe PKK
continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite
court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
And in August, the Turkish government announced a
series of steps to expand Kurdish freedoms with the
hope of ending the PKK insurgency.
Although the drive faltered amid ban on the
country's main Kurdish party, street protests and
PKK violence, Ankara has vowed to push ahead with
the reforms.
Gates added that Washington was also urging the
autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq
to do its share in curbing PKK rebels.
"I met with President (Massoud) Barzani of the
Kurdistan regional Government in Washington last
week and we talked about the importance of KRG
putting pressure on PKK to abandon violence as a
political tool," he added.
Since 1984 PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey
(Turkey-Kurdistan) which has claimed around 45,000
lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas. A large Turkey's Kurdish community
openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency, AFP | Agencies
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