12 December 2005
Turkey wants the United States to provide more intelligence to help it fight the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a government spokesman said on Monday during a visit by the head of the CIA.
Turkish forces have been battling an armed campaign by the PKK, which is on the U.S. and EU lists of foreign terrorist organisations, in the southeast since 1984.
The violence, at its height in the 1980s and 1990s, dwindled when the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire in 1999, but the group recently took up arms again.
"Turkey has expectations from the United States especially in the fight against the separatist terrorist organisation, both in the sense of sharing information and also the measures that can be built on this," Justice Minister and government spokesman Cemil Cicek told a news conference. He did not elaborate.
Central Intelligence Agency Director Porter Goss is in Ankara to meet senior officials, including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and members of the NATO country's key National Intelligence Organisation (MIT).
"He is here to discuss the many areas we cooperate on in intelligence, such as international terrorism and the PKK," a U.S. official in Ankara told Reuters.
FBI Director Robert Mueller visited Turkey only a few days ago. The United States considers Turkey, which is seeking EU membership, a key ally in the region. Turkey has borders with Iran, Iraq and Syria and close ties with Israel.
Turkey has repeatedly called on the United States to crack down on PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.
EU officials say Ankara can play a crucial role in bringing greater stability to the Middle East.
Broadcaster NTV said Goss and his Turkish counterparts were expected to consider measures against the PKK, and quoted a senior official as saying "If the CIA shares with us 25 percent of the intelligence it has on the PKK, we will have taken a large step in this struggle."
More than 30,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched a separatist insurgency in 1984. The group's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured in 1999 and is imprisoned in an island jail south of Istanbul.
http://www.alertnet.org/printable.htm?URL=/thenews/newsdesk/L12134782.htm
