When entering northern Iraq today, "You are met by Kurdish flags, not Iraqi ones," he said. "The Kurdish national anthem plays."
Turkey's growing nervousness over Kurdish influence on its doorstep has developed into recent shifts in policy. The state minister for trade, Kursad Tuzmen, was quoted in recent days as saying that the government planned to open a border crossing with Syria at Akcakale over the next two months to keep the flow of Turkish goods moving south in case the single border crossing with Iraq was shut down.
The parliamentary chairman, Bulent Arinc, who spoke at a news conference before Buyukanit, said that the US had abandoned the Kurds in the past, a piece of history that could repeat itself.
"Even under Saddam, every time the Kurds revolted, trusting the United States, they always perished, lost and felt wretched. I advise them to be cautious also today," he said.
"The US leaves this region," he added, "but we have been here for thousands of years."
RSS