ANKARA – AFP


Turaaa will seek closer cooperation with the Kurdish leaders of northern Iraq to curb outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members from taking refuge in their region the foreign minister said yesterday.
Ali Babacan's remarks signaled a softening of the Turkish stance toward Iraqi Kurds. Ankara has accused them in past of harboring PKK separatists.
"We have had some differences... over the PKK terrorist organization. But in the coming days you can expect increasing contacts on various levels with the administration of northern Iraq" the Anatolia news agency quoted Babacan as saying.
Closer dialogue with Iraqi Kurds "is important with respect to fighting the terrorist organization [PKK] and also for our economic relations and energy cooperation with Iraq as a whole" the minister said.
The PKK listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community has long used camps in the mountains of northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.
Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurds who administer an autonomous region in northern Iraq of tolerating the PKK and even supplying it with weapons and explosives.
Turkish warplanes have bombed PKK positions in northern Iraq since mid-December. In February the army conducted a week-long ground offensive against the PKK drawing protests from Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad.
Tensions eased a week after the cross-border operation when Iraqi President Jalal Talabani a Kurd visited Ankara and pledged cooperation against the PKK.
But Turaaa's ties with the administration of northern Iraq led by Massoud Barzani remain chilly and the United States has often called on both sides to mend fences. The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turaaa since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37000 lives.