Turkey expects US action against PKK
Press TV | October 20, 2007
Turkey says it expects the US to take urgent action against Kurdish rebels but the nation will execute its own plans if it sees no results.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey made its demands clear to the United States and Iraq, and that it was waiting to see how Washington would act.
"Our demands from them are known and we will see what happens in time,'' Erdogan said in an interview with the private Kanal 24 TV channel late Friday.
"We will put into action our own road map if we do not get the results we want.'' Turkey has long asked the US and Iraqi governments to act against Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who infiltrate into Turkey from Iraq and launch guerilla attacks against the government and military.
The fighting has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984. "We have expectations mainly from the US more than Iraq,'' Erdogan said, adding that he hoped to reach consensus with Washington regarding a possible military campaign into northern Iraq during his trip to the US after a regional summit of countries neighboring Iraq next month.
The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
