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Turkey cannot fight PKK on its own, president says

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday that his country cannot, by itself, forge a "political solution" ending two decades of attacks by Kurdish rebels based in nearby northern Iraq.

Speaking after White House talks with US President George W. Bush, he said resolution of the crisis with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants was difficult because they were "terrorists" and based outside Turkey.

"There are attacks [from the PKK] coming into Turkey from another country targeting security forces and civilians," Gul told a Washington forum.

"So how could one speak of a political solution when that act of terrorism emanates externally from another country," he said to a question on the possibility of political solution to the conflict.

"This is like trying to find a solution to an al-Qaeda attack from another country," he said.

Gul also appeared to indicate that the issue of a political solution to the PKK crisis was not raised during talks with Bush on Tuesday.

"Neither today nor [during] any other meeting that we had, we did not discuss this issue and we would not discuss it in that context," Gul said through an interpreter.

Bush said after talks with Gul that the US would keep helping Ankara's military against the PKK.
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