Ankara announces that accord with Damascus meets Turkish security demands

Following three weeks of regional disputes, Damascus and Ankara have reached a security agreement according to which the former pledges to close camps of the Kuridtsni Workers Party in the Bekaa and Syria.

This was expressed by the Turkish Foreign Minister Ismael Cem on Tuesday following two-day negotiations between the two countries' security officials in the city of Seihan near Adanah in southern Turkey.

In a press conference, Cem added that Damascus also agreed not to permit Kurdish revolutionaries to launch attacks from its territories. He added that Damascus agreed to consider the Kurdistani Workers Party "a terrorist organization" and not to allow its leader Abdullah Oclan to enter its territories.

The security agreement was signed by Turkish Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal and the director of Syrian political intelligence Lt. Gen. Adnan Bader Hassan.