Turks Resist Pressure to End Raid in Iraq
Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, resisting Western pressure to end a nearly 3-week-old military drive into Iraq, vowed Thursday to pull out only when rebel Kurds there stopped attacking Turkey.
“Until we reach this aim, it is impossible for us to pull out of the region,” she told her conservative True Path party, the Anatolian news agency reported. She gave no date.
Other Cabinet ministers pleaded Turkey’s case in Britain and the United States, which along with France and Germany have demanded a swift end to the thrust by 35,000 Turkish troops against separatist Kurdistan Workers Party rebels.
Turkish Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu met Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Wednesday in Washington.
“What we did not get today was any kind of a (withdrawal) date. We would like to have a date,” a senior U.S. official said after the meeting, linking a target date to a scheduled U.S. visit by Ciller from April 16-22.
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