Turkey seeks action on Kurdish rebel problem

Turkey’s foreign minister Friday urged the Bush administration to replace its words with action, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here for emergency meetings aimed at persuading Turkey not to attack Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, expressing his country’s frustration with continuing rebel attacks, declared that “we need action. . . . This is where the words end and the action needs to start.”

With Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan scheduled to meet President Bush in the White House on Monday, Rice came with hopes of setting a diplomatic path for easing the conflict between the Turks, the Kurdish militant group known as the PKK, and the Kurdish regional government in Iraq that Turks accuse of supporting the militants.

But Babacan made it clear that his government, which has agreed to hold off cross-border attacks at Rice’s request, does not want to continue a three-way conversation unless there are strong prospects of finding a solution to the situation.

“Our expectations of the United States are very high,” he said at a news conference with Rice. “We need to work on making things happen.”

What is needed is a strategy “that combines both political will and action,” he said.

Cooperation urged

Rice, who also met with Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, said the Turks, U.S. officials and Iraqi authorities needed to work together against a “common enemy,” and should develop a systematic approach to closing down the PKK instead of lashing out with force in an effort that could fall short.

The secretary remained vague about the plan she is advocating behind the scenes. She did not specify what role she wants Kurdish regional authorities in Iraq to play against the PKK. She said Americans, Turks and Iraqis need a “comprehensive approach.”

Rice said that “no one should doubt the United States’ commitment” to deal with the problem.

She pointed out that U.S. spy planes had begun collecting information on the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, in remote mountains where they hide, and reports have been delivered to Turkish authorities.

In Washington, Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy said Ankara expected concrete action on three fronts: shutting down five active PKK bases in Iraq; cutting logistics and support lines that continue to supply PKK fighters in Iraq; and blocking movement of PKK members and their political affiliates in northern Iraq, where he said they frequently appear on local TV.

“There are certain things we deem are doable without recourse to the use of force, and we have enumerated those things to the United States authorities,” Sensoy said in an interview. “If [Iraqi authorities] use force or they don’t use force, it is for them to decide. But we do expect them to do away with the PKK presence in their own territory.”

Sensoy said the Turkish government wouldn’t set deadlines for action, but added that Erdogan expected his meeting with Bush to produce specific commitments he can present to government and military leaders in Ankara.

“I do hope we will have something tangible and positive that will come out of this very high-level meeting,” Sensoy said, “and if that is not [achieved], I don’t even want to think about” the consequences.

U.S. officials continue to argue publicly against Turkish attacks across the border, warning that they could draw the Iraqi Kurds’ hardy peshmerga fighters into the conflict and destabilize one of the few relatively quiet areas of Iraq.

But some observers, including some Iraqi officials, believe the United States would not strongly object to Turkish attacks against the PKK fighters in Iraq, provided they were brief and sharply focused to avoid igniting public outrage and widening the conflict.

About 100,000 Turkish troops, with tanks and other heavy equipment, are massed on the border with Iraq.

Babacan’s words, though blunt, were more muted than many from Turkish leaders in recent days. The government is under tremendous public pressure to crack down on the PKK. In turn it has demanded that the United States increase pressure on Kurdish officials in Iraq, whom they accuse of supporting and shielding the PKK.

Overture from Kurds

Meanwhile, the prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government, in an effort to distance his administration from the PKK, issued a statement strongly condemning the militants’ attacks.

The statement from Nechirvan Barzani said his government denounced the acts “in the strongest terms,” and was working to prevent the region from being a staging ground for cross-border violence.

“We understand Turkey’s frustration with the actions of the PKK and we share the grief and sadness over the loss of life that has taken place,” Barzani said. “We believe that the only solution to this long-running problem is to be found in negotiations and compromise, not further violence.”

Rice’s visit prompted tight security in both Ankara, the Turkish capital, and Istanbul, its largest city. Thousands of police officers were deployed near the meeting venues. In Istanbul, streets were blocked off for her motorcade, leaving rush-hour traffic snarled.

Small groups of demonstrators turned out at both of her stops, a reflection of sentiments that the United States is the main obstacle to Turkish retaliation against the PKK. In Istanbul, protesters carried an effigy of her and chanted, “Get out, Rice!”

On Friday, Erdogan addressed leaders of his Justice and Development party, known by its Turkish initials AKP, telling them that “we hope this operation [into northern Iraq] will not be necessary.”

After her meetings in Ankara, Rice flew to Istanbul on Friday night for a two-day conference of foreign ministers from Iraq’s neighbors, Europe and other world powers to discuss Iraq’s problems. The PKK issue is expected to dominate the talks.

The foreign ministers of Iran and Syria are expected at the Istanbul meetings, but are not expected to meet with U.S. officials, as they did last spring at a conference with U.S. officials on Iraq.

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paul.richter@latimes.com

Times staff writers Laura King in Istanbul and Peter Spiegel in Washington contributed to this report.