Turkey weighs action against Kurd rebels
Foreign Desk Report

ANKARA—Turkey wants to see action not words in dealing with Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Friday during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“We are where words have come to an end and action must begin,” Babacan said following talks with Rice on the threat posed by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) operating over the Iraqi border.
Rice was in Ankara on a mission to dissuade Turkey from following through on a threat to launch a military incursion against the PKK bases in northern Iraq. Babacan said their talks marked the “beginning of a closer cooperation with the United States in the fight against terrorism” and added that the US administration would play a “key role” in combating the Kurdish separatists. Washington is opposed to any unilateral Turkish action and Rice stressed the need for a combined strategy.
“I think it is fair to say that we believe, the president believes... (that) we all need to redouble our efforts — and the US is committed to redoubling these efforts because we need a comprehensive approach to this problem,” she said. The United States promised to redouble efforts on Friday against Kurdish guerrillas in an attempt to stave off Turkish military intervention in northern Iraq that could destabilize the region. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting Ankara amid growing anti-U.S. sentiment among Turks, called the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a “common enemy.” But she did not spell out what steps Washington was contemplating.
“We all need to redouble our efforts and the United States is committed to redoubling our efforts,” Rice told a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. Expressed Turkish frustration at the lack of action so far. “This is where the words end and action needs to start,” he said. Ankara says numerous pledges by U.S. and Iraqi authorities have failed to materialize and it has warned that unless immediate action is taken Turkey will launch a major cross-border operation to crack down on PKK guerrillas using northern Iraq as a base to carry out deadly attacks in Turkey.
Turkey, a NATO member with the alliance’s second-biggest army, has sent up to 100,000 troops to the Iraqi border, backed by tanks, artillery and aircraft. But Iraq and the United States have urged Ankara to refrain from a major operation in an area that has so far been spared the worst of the violence in Iraq. “No one should doubt the commitment of the United States to this issue ... We have a common enemy and we need a common approach,” Rice said. Rice also held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who is going to Washington next week for discussions with President George W. Bush on how to tackle an estimated 3,000 PKK guerrillas operating freely in northern Iraq.
Rice said measures on how to deal with the PKK would be discussed at a meeting between herself and ministers from Turkey and Iraq on the sidelines of an Iraq neighbors’ conference in Istanbul on Saturday.
Turkish-U.S. ties are at a low following a resolution passed by a U.S. congressional committee last month that called the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide. Rice hopes to heal any rifts from that.
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington put the U.S. favorability rating in Turkey at 9 percent and found Turks see the United States as the single biggest threat to their nation’s security. Babacan said Rice’s visit to Turkey, which is one of the main supply routes to U.S. troops in neighboring Iraq, marked the start of closer cooperation between the NATO allies in combating the threat from the PKK.