Today Associated Press
Oct 22, 2007
In Washington, the State Department said the United States has opened a diplomatic "full court press" to urge Turkey not to invade Iraqi Kurdistan. "In our view, there are better ways to deal with this issue," spokesman Sean McCormack said, stressing that the United States regards the PKK as a terrorist organization. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK, would make a cease-fire announcement later Monday. Talabani's remarks were made to reporters at the airport in the Kurdish city of Sulaimani before he flew to Baghdad and confirmed by his office. More details were not immediately available. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a telephone conversation on Sunday night that Turkey expected "speedy steps from the U.S." in cracking down on Kurdish rebels and that Rice, who called the Turkish leader, asked "for a few days" from him. McCormack did not dispute the account of the conversation but declined to comment on what Rice had meant by asking for "a few days." Erdogan did not specify what he meant by "speedy steps," but he has often urged the United States and Iraq to crack down on the PKK. Turkish leaders say it is the responsibility of those countries to do whatever is necessary to destroy the guerrilla group's bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.
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