ANKARA, 7 February 2005 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here yesterday that Washington was committed to Iraq’s unity and to combating Turkish Kurd rebels hiding in northern Iraq as she sought to soothe Turkey’s growing unease over US policies in its war-torn neighbor.
“We will work on the underlying difficulties that we face. ... Friends have differences from time to time but the important thing is that we remember we are still friends,” Rice told reporters following talks with Turkish leaders.
Rice’s two-day visit to the Turkish capital followed charges from Ankara that Washington is turning a blind eye to Kurdish moves in northern Iraq aimed at paving the way for future Kurdish independence in the region, Turkey’s long-standing bete noire.
The accusations come at a time when the two NATO allies are already struggling to repair their ties in the wake of a severe diplomatic crisis ahead of Iraq’s invasion in March 2003 when Ankara stunned Washington by denying US troops access to Turkish territory to attack Iraq from the north.
The prospect of major Kurdish political gains in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk following the Jan. 30 elections has irked Ankara, which suspects that the Kurds want to make the ethnically mixed city the capital of an independent Kurdish state. Such a state, Ankara fears, would fuel separatism among the restive Kurds of adjoining southeastern Turkey, sparking regional turmoil.
As Rice sought to allay Turkish misgivings, organizers of an informal referendum on Kurdish independence that was conducted alongside the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections announced that nearly 99 percent of respondents supported secession.
In an interview with Turkey’s NTV news channel, Rice said it was up to the Iraqis to decide on the future status of Kirkuk, but stressed that the ethnically volatile city should be a place where “all Iraqis will live together without fears.”
Ankara has warned that it could be forced to take action if the city, which is also home to Turkish-speaking Turkmens, plunges into ethnic turmoil.
Rice also said that “Iraq’s territory should never be a place from where terrorism can be committed against its neighbors.”
She was responding to Turkish frustration over the seemingly unimpeded presence in the mountains of northern Iraq of some 5,000 Turkish Kurd rebels who found refuge in the region before the US invasion and who last summer ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Ankara.
Turkey has long been disappointed over US reluctance to take military action against the guerrillas, members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Washington considers a terrorist organization.
Rice told NTV that trilateral security meetings between Turkey, Iraq and the United States should continue and that the parties should also seek to use non-military measures such as cutting off sources of financing for the rebels.
She stopped short of pledging military action against the PKK, highlighting the difficult security situation in other parts of Iraq.
Rice also urged Turkish leaders “to speak out about how important this (Turkish-US) relationship is to both of us” amid concerns here that differences over Iraq have fanned anti-US sentiment in Turkey, a secular Muslim nation which Washington values as a model of co-habitation between democracy and Islam.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul praised Turkish-US ties as “an alliance which has been tested throughout history,” but also called for more intensive dialogue between the two sides.
“I believe we will follow up on the issues we discussed and have much deeper consultations as two allies,” he said.
The two officials also discussed the Cyprus conflict and efforts to revive the Middle East peace process.
Rice flew next to Israel the latest leg of her first international tour since her appointment last month, a whirlwind tour of eight European capitals and the Middle East.
