Bush, Turkish PM Discuss Kurdish Rebels
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Monday pledged fresh help to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in fighting Kurdish rebels, declaring them "an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States."
In an Oval Office session, Bush offered intelligence sharing to help combat the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Bush also said top military figures from the United States and Turkey would be in more regular contact in an effort to track the movement of the guerrilla fighters.
"I made it very clear to the prime minister that we want to work in a close way to deal with this problem," Bush told reporters.
With Turkish troops massed on the border of his country, Erdogan is weighing a major cross-border attack against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, rebels in northern Iraq. The guerrillas have killed more than 40 Turks in the past month in cross-border raids, and pressure is growing on Erdogan to hit back.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush hoped a face-to-face meeting Monday would persuade Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to hold back tens of thousands of Turkish troops massed on Iraq's border.
But Erdogan came to Washington expecting the United States to take action against Kurdish rebels staging cross-border attacks from Iraq into Turkey. So far, the U.S. has been unable to deliver.
During a trip to Turkey last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised to redouble efforts against the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. But her Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, made clear his government was not satisfied.
"We are at the point where words have been exhausted and where there is need for action," Babacan said Friday.
Turkish leaders have signaled that a decision on what to do about the rebels may hinge on what Erdogan can bring back from Washington to a Turkish public that favors military action in Iraq.
"Rice's visit only raised expectations in Turkey," said Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "If President Bush does not make clear that he is willing to take direct action against the PKK or make the Iraqi Kurds take such action, Erdogan may not be able to resist a military operation."
The PKK, which has fought for autonomy for Turkish Kurds since 1984, is labeled a terrorist group by Europe and the United States. Turkey has complained for years that the United States has not done enough to end PKK activity Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north. The issue has enraged Turks and moved public opinion against the United States.
Mark Parris, a U.S. ambassador to Turkey in the Clinton administration and now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that Monday's meeting would be the last chance for the Bush administration to repair strained relations with Ankara.
"If Erdogan hears something relatively reasonable and concrete you can put this relationship back together," Parris said. "If not, that effort might have to wait for a new administration."
The Bush administration worries that a cross-border incursion would bring instability to what has been the calmest part of Iraq, and could set a precedent for other countries, such as Iran, that have conflicts with Kurdish rebels. For weeks, the Bush administration has stressed the need for a diplomatic solution between Turkey and Iraq.
Rice said the U.S. was considering sharing more intelligence and information with Turkey and said she had begun talking with Turkish leaders about long term solutions.
Following a meeting in Istanbul with Iraqi officials including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a conference on Iraq, Rice won a pledge that Iraq would step up efforts to fight PKK terrorism. Later Saturday, Iraqi Kurd authorities shut down the Irbil and Sulaimaniyah offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Solution party, an organization that allegedly had close ties to Kurdish guerrillas.
But Turkey was still looking for more from the United States.
"I am expecting that this trip will result with the United States ... taking solid steps," Erdogan said Saturday prior to leaving Turkey for Washington.
The intensity of Turkey's demands on the PKK has risen as hit-and-run raids by the rebels and other fighting have left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead in recent month. The skirmishes were the latest in a conflict that has seen nearly 40,000 people killed.
Oval Office on November 5, 2007.
On Monday, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid an official state visit to the United States. During his visit, he met with President George W. Bush in the White House for talks that centered on the Turkey-PKK conflict and the Iraq War.

Turkey is concerned about attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that originate from within the borders of Iraq. There have been cross-border clashes between Turkey and the PKK. Turkey has threatened a major incursion, something the US seeks to avoid, as it could upset the relative calm in northern Iraq. The PKK has been listed as a terrorist organization by a number of countries and organizations. The PKK's goal has been to create an independent socialist Kurdish state in a territory which it claims as Kurdistan, an area that comprises parts of south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Iraq, north-eastern Syria and north-western Iran.

After the meeting, Bush said of the PKK that "they are an enemy of Turkey, they are an enemy of Iraq, and they are an enemy of the United States." He pledged additional intelligence to help Turkey, an offer that was also made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week, during her Middle East tour.



Bush further offered mutual military assistance with both Turkey and Iraq to fight the PKK. "We want to work in a close way to deal with this problem," he said.

Erdogan mentioned during the post-meeting news conference that the Grand National Assembly of Turkey has already authorized military action in Iraq. He did not, however, say whether such action would be imminent.



Neither leader indicated to what level, if any, that direct military cooperation would exist.

Ali Babacan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Turkey, was last week not so impressed by Rice's offers. "We are at the point where words have been exhausted and where there is need for action," he said on Friday.

"The Bush administration would like to just kick this can down the road," said Bulent Aliriza, a political observer for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The problem is, the can has been kicked down the road to the point where now it can't be kicked anymore."