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Davutoğlu rules out Taliban-PKK comparison in London
Davutoğlu arrived in London on Wednesday evening to represent Turkey at a 60-nation conference on Afghanistan held on Thursday. The conference followed a regional conference on Afghanistan which took place in İstanbul on Tuesday. In İstanbul, in a joint statement issued after the conference, Afghanistan’s neighbors and Turkey backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s plan to offer incentives to Taliban fighters to make them lay down their arms.
“We ... support the Afghan national process of reconciliation and reintegration in accordance with the constitution of Afghanistan in a way that is Afghan-led and driven,” the statement said.
Davutoğlu, speaking with reporters en route to London, emphasized the importance of reaching national reconciliation in Afghanistan. Recalling Karzai’s recent remarks in which he said he would make a statement at the London conference asking for Taliban names to be removed from a UN blacklist, Davutoğlu said Turkey’s approach to this idea was positive.
“We will do everything for national reconciliation,” Davutoğlu said but did not elaborate further when asked whether Turkey had been involved in talking with the Taliban to persuade them to disarm.
In response to a question which appeared to put Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by a large majority of the international community, on the same page, Davutoğlu reacted harshly.
Everybody in Turkey is free to be involved in the political process, Davutoğlu said, adding: “There is a political system in Turkey which functions healthily. In Afghanistan, there is an extraordinary situation. There is public order in Turkey.”
In early 2008, the Turkish military conducted a major operation against the PKK in northern Iraq, and Turkish warplanes have since carried out regular cross-border bombing raids against targets in the mountainous region.
In Washington, US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip J. Crowley praised Turkey’s efforts in Afghanistan, in reply to a question on a trilateral summit with Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday in İstanbul ahead of the regional conference.
Turkey, as a key member of NATO and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, has been playing a unique and significant role, Crowley said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, at the US Department of Defense on the same day, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell announced that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates will pay a visit to Turkey next week, to attend an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers in İstanbul on Feb. 4 and 5. Gates will later proceed to Ankara to meet with Turkish officials, Morrell added.
Talks with Clinton on Armenia
Upon his arrival in London on Wednesday evening, Davutoğlu had a brief meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, once more explaining Ankara’s uneasiness with the reasoning of the Armenian constitutional court’s decision on Jan. 12, which found the protocols signed on Oct. 10 of last year in Zurich in conformity with the Armenian Constitution.
Ankara believes that “the decision contains preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and spirit of the protocols.” Ankara is expecting to receive a written guarantee from the Yerevan administration reaffirming that the detailed reasoning by the Armenian constitutional court will not have an impact on the process of normalization of bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey.
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