Turkey, Iraq, U.S. to discuss Kurdish PKK

Tuesday, 28 July 2009 13:23 Xinhua
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Turkey, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A ministerial meeting of a tripartite mechanism, including Turkey, Iraq and the United States, was held in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Tuesday to discuss fighting the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).
Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay, Iraqi State Minister for National Security Shirwan al-Waili, and deputy commander of multinational force in Iraq Steven Hummer are chairing the delegations at the meeting which took place at the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
The participants are discussing closer cooperation and further steps to be taken against the PKK forces, as well as the Makhmour camp in northern Iraq, which houses Kurdish refugees and is claimed by Turkey to be used as a weapon depot for the PKK militants.
The Ankara talks came just before another comprehensive meeting scheduled for October in Iraq, when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to be present.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK for the past over two decades.
Turkey's military forces have taken tougher actions against the PKK after the country's legislature gave the government's mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels in northern Iraq in October 2007 and extended it again in 2008.

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