TURKISH AMBASSADOR TO US NOTES IRAQI KURDS SUPPORT PKK

Turkey’s ambassador to the United States Nabi Şensoy stated that Iraqi Kurds, particularly Massoud Barzani’s group, provided explosives, arms and logistical support to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and aided and abetted it.

Ambassador Nabi Şensoy “Those who help the PKK terrorists share their goals,” he said.
Meeting with defense writers in Washington, Şensoy estimated that the American weapons used by the PKK were provided by Barzani’s group, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
He also noted that the PKK used the explosives it takes from Barzani in the attacks it perpetrates in Turkey and added that he did not believe the United States would provide arms to the terrorist group.

The ambassador also stressed that Ankara had demanded from Washington that US forces use all their influence on the Iraqi Kurds and make them stop supporting the PKK, adding that US officials in the region were holding talks with Barzani to this end.

Turkey also demanded that the US pressure Baghdad to recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization, he said, and recalled that recognition of the PKK as a terrorist group would lay the legal groundwork for measures to be taken against the PKK in Iraq.

He recalled that Barzani did not want the PKK to be recognized as a terrorist organization and that Baghdad had never taken any steps to recognize it as such.

Şensoy particularly emphasized that the Turkish nation had no patience left for the PKK problem and reiterated the statements of Turkish officials, who had said that Turkey could carry out an incursion into northern Iraq whenever it deemed such an operation necessary.

Şensoy conveyed Turkey’s attitude against a referendum on whether Kirkuk should be annexed to the Kurdish region and added that Iraq was faced with the danger of being divided, saying that the possibility of Kirkuk being made a part of the Kurdish region was unacceptable.
Turkey held the US responsible for the existence of the PKK in northern Iraq, Şensoy said, and noted that this seriously tarnished the image of the US in Turkey.
12.07.2007
Today’s Zaman Washington