US says it cooperates with Turkey against Kurdish PKK
US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried says the United States is increasing its cooperation with Turkey against a Kurdish terrorist group, the PKK, and "we want to increase it still more."
And in separate remarks, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz urged Turkey to undertake reforms that would prove a Muslim-majority country also can be a prosperous democracy.
Fried, who heads up the State Department's Europe bureau, said May 18 that it is up to the Turkish government to determine how to deal with the threat of PKK terrorists on its border with Iraq. But he also said Turkey and the new government of Iraq share a common goal of eliminating safe harbors for militants.
"Without getting into intelligence issues, I'm very happy to report to you that our cooperation with Turkey against the PKK is increasing," Fried said in a roundtable discussion with Turkish diplomats co-hosted by CNN Türk's Mithat Bereket in Istanbul, and America Abroad Media's Judy Woodruff in Washington.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting Ankara on April 25, urged Turkey to work with the newly formed Iraqi government to address cross-border terrorism by the PKK -- Kurdistan Workers Party -- a Kurdish separatist group that has sought refuge in neighboring Iraq. (See related article.)
Thousands of PKK fighters reportedly have found refuge in ethnically Kurdish northern Iraq, taking advantage of what Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul has called "a vacuum of authority," to train and conduct cross-border attacks against Turkish forces. Turkey and Iran both have sizable minority Kurd populations, and both countries reportedly have massed military forces near their borders with northern Iraq.
In the television roundtable, a Turkish student asked Fried how the United States would react if Turkish armed forces conducted cross-border operations against PKK fighters in northern Iraq.
The United States considers the PKK to be a terrorist group that "has no place in Iraq" and "has no place anywhere," Fried said.
One of the most effective ways for Turkey to eliminate the PKK's threat "is to support the development of a stable, secure Iraq in which terrorist groups have no place," Fried said.
"The question for Turkey is what sort of tactics will best promote that kind of an Iraq in which the PKK has no place?" he added. "And it seems to me, that Turkey and the Iraqi government that is now coming into being have a mutual interest in seeing the PKK gone, in seeing Iraq's Kurdish population participating in a national government, in an Iraq which is a federal state -- a democratic state and a stable state."
For that reason, Fried said, Turkey needs to balance its short-term tactical goals with longer-term strategic goals.
"Americans understand Turkey's frustration. Turkey faces attacks from the PKK," Fried said. US cooperation with Turkey against the PKK is increasing, he said, and "we want it to increase still more against PKK finances in Western Europe, against PKK operations."