Saturday, December 23, 2006

Turkish intervention in Iraq

* turkey's PM was on Lehrer during the week:
Turkish intervention in Iraq

MARGARET WARNER: Now, under what circumstances would Turkey feel it had to intervene militarily in Iraq?

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN: At the moment, you mentioned earlier that northern Iraq is peaceful, but it is not, because there is a terrorist organization. And it is there in northern Iraq.

PKK is attacking our country, Turkey, from northern Iraq. It is coming from northern Iraq.

And we had talked about this issue with our friends, with the president, as well. And as a result of that, Turkey and the United States appointed envoys with respect to discussing issues around terrorism. And General Ralston on the U.S. side and General Baser on Turkey's side are working on these issues.

And the whole object of this work is to ensure that what we discussed is translated into concrete actions. And, in that respect, of course, we would like to see the results of the work. But if this work continues to drag on and no result is achieved, of course, there is a limit to our patience.

MARGARET WARNER: How much more time will you give these negotiations between the U.S. and Turkey over the Kurdish rebels that are getting safe haven right now in Iraq? How much time will you give that process before Turkey has to take matters into its own hands and just go into Iraq itself and try to clean them out?

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN: The special envoys are working at the moment. And, of course, we do not see that there is a lot of time for that work, because this issue does not have a history of only a few years. This has been around for 30 years, so I have to say very clearly that work has to progress.

1 comment:

Mizgîn said...

What is really ironic about this is that neither Erdogan nor this American Warner, or whatever she is, ever bothers to mention Turkish atrocities. I guess the Americans simply cannot conceive of themselves as genociders, but that's what they are.

Crimes against humanity . . . that's what the US is all about.

We will not "acquiesce" in genocide, as Blair put it.

Oh, please . . . let them come to South Kurdistan. All we want for Christmas is dead Turks :D And to see Erdogan "cry in vain," as he put it during the Amed Serhildan.