Iraqi President Jalal Talabani insisted that Kurdish rebels would not be tolerated inside its borders and sought to allay tensions following neighboring Turkey's eight-day military mission inside Iraq.
Speaking during a visit to Turkey on Friday, Talabani said that Iraq was continuing to put pressure on Kurdish rebels to lay down their arms. Talabani said the two countries would discuss wide-ranging security measures to combat their threat.
The visit by Talabani, himself a Kurd, reflected diplomatic efforts to ease tensions after an operation that some had feared could spill into a wider conflict between two US allies.
The Turkish military ended its offensive a week ago against Kurdish militants who launch attacks on Turkey from rebel bases in northern Iraq.
"Iraq wants strategic and solid relations with Turkey," Talabani said. "We have exerted pressure. Either they should lay down arms or they should leave the area. We are going to discuss wide-ranging security agreements."
Turkish President Abdullah Gul called on the rebels to lay down their arms, saying that Turkey would never tolerate those who engage in terrorism.
In response to a question on Friday about whether Turkey would consider nonmilitary ways to end the conflict with autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels, Gul said: "Whoever has a gun in his hand should lay his weapon down; the state will never tolerate this."
In the latest reported violence in the area, suspected Kurdish rebels killed a civilian and took another hostage on Friday in a southern Turkish province near the border with Syria, a local official told state-run media.
Rebels hiding in a mountainous part of Hatay province killed the man after forcing him to bring them provisions, Governor Ahmet Kayhan told the Anatolia news agency. Rebels accused the man of informing security forces of their whereabouts, Kayhan said.
A friend of the slain man was kept hostage by rebels and security forces were trying to locate the insurgents, Kayhan said.
Along with military ties, energy cooperation and other economic issues are on top of the agenda for talks between the two countries, Gul's office said.
The Iraqi delegation visiting Turkey included the country's ministers of finance, oil and industry, as well as the deputy foreign minister, according to the independent Voices of Iraq news agency.
Several other senior political figures were accompanying Talabani, who was making his first trip to Turkey since his 2005 election, the news agency said.
Turkey's previous president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, declined to invite Talabani to visit amid tension over the activities of Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
Some in Turkey accused Iraqi Kurdish leaders of not doing enough to curb the rebels.
Turkey launched its cross-border ground operation against rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Feb. 21. It pulled out eight days later.
Turkey is concerned that the example set by the Iraqi Kurds, who run a virtual mini-state within Iraq, could encourage Turkey's own Kurdish population to seek a similar arrangement.
During Turkey's ground incursion, Iraq demanded an immediate withdrawal and warned of the potential for clashes between Turkish troops and security forces of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Talabani was greeted by the Turkish deputy prime minister, Cemil Cicek, in a low-key arrival at the airport in Ankara. No honor guard was present, and no military ceremony was held when he arrived at the presidential palace.
State leaders usually receive such tributes when they visit the Turkish capital. Some Turkish television news stations noted the absence of honor guards, but did not speculate on whether the Turkish military had chosen to shun Talabani or whether the two governments had agreed to avoid military symbolism so soon after the ground incursion.
The Turkish military, which is receiving US intelligence, said that it inflicted heavy losses on a large group of Kurdish rebels in Iraq's Zap region.
The PKK has disputed the claim.
The PKK has said it wants political and cultural autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey. The conflict started in 1984 and has killed tens of thousands of people.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS