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Holbrooke refutes Yugoslavia analogy on Kurdish issue
"There is no similarity between the former Yugoslavia and Turkey. The former Yugoslavia was put together after World War I by people who drew the map. … They put a lot of different people in one place. Turkey, a great country, was created out of the culture of its predecessor, a great country conceived by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. There is no similarity. I don't understand the connection," he said, answering questions from reporters before talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on the sidelines of the meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) group, held in İstanbul yesterday.
The question from the press regarded the opposition's harsh stance against the government's democratic initiative to resolve Turkey's Kurdish issue and put an end to the violent separatist campaign of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The opposition claims that the government's initiative would damage the unity of the country and lead to division.
Holbrooke, now the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, also said each country has to decide on its own about sending military forces to Afghanistan to combat the Taliban. He was responding to a question regarding sending additional military forces to the country.
Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said Holbrooke talked about his observations in Afghanistan in his meeting with Davutoğlu in addition to the issues related to strengthening a democratic Pakistan. Regarding the recent election results in Afghanistan, where the country's finance minister, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, claimed victory over the incumbent President Hamid Karzai as people awaited official results, Holbrooke said it is too early to comment on the election results.
Iranian and Turkish FMs: Regional problems require regional initiatives
Davutoğlu also had a meeting with his Iranian colleague who participated in the FoDP meeting. The two ministers discussed regional issues, including developments in Iraq, and agreed that regional problems require regional solutions, according to diplomatic sources close to the meeting.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, using a metaphor, that a disease can be diagnosed more easily if you are near it and as a result its cure can be easier to find, too. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said this should not be interpreted as saying that the Americans or the Russians should not deal with the problems of the region; rather, it is a view that promotes drawing the support of neighboring countries to help Iraq's recovery after the latest US intervention, the same source said.
Turkey, Canada work to improve ties
Canada was another participant of the FoDP meeting in İstanbul, which convened at the ministerial level. Expressing full support for Pakistan's development, Davutoğlu and his Canadian counterpart, Lawrence Cannon, also discussed how to improve ties between their own countries, especially after relations were strained over the Canadian recognition in 2004 of Armenian claims that 1.5 million Armenians were victims of a genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century.
Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said the two ministers discussed how to devise an action plan to improve ties between the two countries. Foreign Minister Cannon also said he had a pleasant journey from Toronto to İstanbul on Turkish Airlines (THY), which launched direct flights between the cities last month.
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