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Turkey-US intel sharing against PKK working fine, says Armitage
Armitage, who is leading a delegation of visiting ATC members in Turkey, expressed his condolences to the Turkish nation for the victims of the recent terrorist attacks. Speaking about the level of cooperation between Turkey and the US against terrorist activity, he said, “When an ally is in trouble, we are troubled,” and added that intelligence sharing between the US and Turkey against the PKK is working, the cooperation between the two countries regarding Iraq and Afghanistan is going well and economic relations are improving, too.
In related developments, US Assistant Secretary of State Philip J. Crowley also made a statement in a press conference yesterday on a PKK attack on Tuesday that killed five people in İstanbul and another PKK attack over the weekend that left 11 soldiers dead. He offered condolences to the families and friends of the victims, and said: “There has been no change in the level of US-Turkey cooperation in confronting the PKK.
The PKK, as you know, is a Foreign Terrorist Organization and presents a joint common threat to Turkey, to Iraq and to the United States. They are a threat to the stability of the region and we support efforts by our Turkish allies and our Iraqi allies to deal with the challenge posed by the PKK.”
However, during his statement Armitage also hinted that nowadays they have some difficulties in explaining some aspects of Turkish foreign policy back in the US, but they believe that talking more can overcome these difficulties.
He said that in the US the overwhelming feeling regarding Turkey’s “no” vote in the UN Security Council to fresh sanctions against Iran is a disappointment but he underlined that Turkey does not want the Tehran regime to acquire nuclear weapons. He said Turkey’s thinking is that sanctions are not a useful tool and that diplomacy should be given a chance.
“Many wonder why Turkey, who wants to express its view, would say no while it could abstain. ‘No’ votes have no practical consequences. It did not stop the sanctions. You could have made the same point by abstaining,” he said in a press conference in Ankara on Tuesday evening.
Regarding the lethal intervention of Israeli forces in the Freedom Flotilla on May 31 which claimed the lives of eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American and dealt a serious blow to the already problematic Turkish-Israeli ties, Ambassador Armitage said that the operation was a “blunder.”
He said that after the operation Israel had decided to ease the blockade on Gaza but he hopes this situation will not encourage more flotillas.
added that for the US, Hamas is a terrorist organization, the opposite of what Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, but when questioned on the issue, Ambassador Armitage said that he was concerned that the Jewish lobby in the US might not help Turkey in preventing further resolutions regarding the claims of Armenian genocide.
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