Articles About Terrorist Activities

Turkey on Tuesday urged Iraq and the United States to come up with ’concrete results’ on the ground in efforts to curb PKK terrorists in the third meeting of a tripartite committee between the countries.

“We have more expectations. We expect concrete results,” Turkish Interior Minister Beşir Atalay told reporters in Ankara following a meeting held as part of a joint committee set up by the three countries in November to cooperate against PKK terrorists, who attack Turkey from bases in northern Iraq.

Turkey has long been urging Iraq to choke off supplies to the PKK bases and arrest its leaders, but Iraq’s central government, and the Iraqi Kurdish administration in the north, have not done that.

Turkey has also urged Iraqi authorities to shut down the U.N.-supervised Makhmur refugee camp in Iraq, where Turkish authorities believe the PKK indoctrinate children to become terrorists.

“Makhmur camp is on our agenda. There is need for further analysis, exchange of information on this issue,” Atalay said.

Atalay, Iraqi National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waili and U.S. Maj. Gen. Steven A. Hummer, the deputy chief of staff for operations in Iraq’s multinational force, chaired the meeting at the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The Iraqi delegation included an Iraqi Kurdish official, ANKA News Agency reported.

Waeli pledged that Iraqi authorities would continue efforts “to purge the PKK” from his country.

“I have no doubts that we will achieve the desired result as long as we continue to work together and keep the doors of dialogue open,” he said.

Turkey, provided with intelligence by the United States, has bombed PKK camps in northern Iraq since December 2007 under parliamentary authorization that expires in October.

Ankara had often accused the Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in northern Iraq, of tolerating and even aiding the terrorists.

But in a major policy shift last year, it said it would seek to resolve the issue through diplomacy and cooperation with Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurds.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community including the United States and the EU.

Source: Hurriyet
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-iraq-and-us-officials-discuss-pkk-terror-2009-07-28