Ankara - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
Tuesday said he would ask the United States to take concrete steps to
stop Kurdish rebel activity in northern Iraq.
He was speaking to parliamentary colleagues ahead of two crucial
meetings with US President George W Bush and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice.
Erdogan said the upcoming meetings were of extreme importance and
that he would be stressing that Turkey's patience is at an end.
'In the past 30 years We have given a lot of blood, a lot of
martyrs,' Erdogan said.
A day after reports that three Turkish soldiers had been killed in
the latest fighting with Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in
southeast Turkey, Erdogan also said that military operations were
continuing.
'This is not just a military matter though, there is also the
political and diplomatic angle,' Erdogan said.
Rice is due to arrive in Turkey on Thursday to take part in a
meeting of Iraq's neighbours while Turkey has announced that Erdogan
will meet Bush in Washington next week.
The main topic on the agenda of the meetings will be Turkey's
threat to launch a large-scale incursion into northern Iraq to
destroy PKK bases.
The past weeks have seen a big upsurge in attacks inside Turkey on
military targets by PKK rebels who had crossed into the country from
mountainous northern Iraq. Almost 100 people were killed in October
alone.
Erdogan also said he would be seeking an explanation as to how US
weapons had fallen into the hands of PKK rebels.
Washington is concerned that any incursion by its NATO ally Turkey
could destabilize the relative calm that exists in northern Iraq and
may lead to clashes between Kurdish peshmergas belonging to the
Kurdistan regional authority that governs northern Iraq.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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