Turkey Demands US Action on Kurdish Rebels

PM reminds DC of help in Afghanistan; Iraqis urge nonmilitary action
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 25, 2007 2:50 PM CDT
Turkey Demands US Action on Kurdish Rebels
Turkish people wave national flags during a protest against the separatist Kurdish rebel group, the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, in downtown Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his nation cannot wait forever for the Iraqi government to...   (Associated Press)

As top Iraqis urged his country to quell Kurdish rebels with nonmilitary action, Turkish PM Recep Erdogan demanded that the US act to stop those rebels from threatening his country from northern Iraq, the New York Times reports. “We have a disturbance," Erdogan said. "What kind of disturbance did the United States have with Iraq?"

Erdogan noted that the US effort in Iraq put it in a strategic position to help Turkey, which aided the US in Afghanistan. Turkey has sent warplanes and "hot pursuit" raids into northern Iraq, but so far has stopped short of a full invasion. That choice, Erdogan asserted, was Turkey's to make: “[The US] can suggest, but we give the decision." (More Turkey stories.)

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