Turkey determined on cross border operation in northern Iraq

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he came out of his private meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush reassured about prospects for Turkey's showdown with Kurdish rebels.



After the meeting at the White House, Erdogan delivered a speech at the National Press Club. "We decided to launch a cross-border operation," he said. Erdogan stated that they would use their right for intervention stemming from international law and said, "We have no tolerance left for mechanisms that did not bear any results." Erdogan said that Turkey's target was only the terrorist organization PKK based in the North of Iraq and underlined that the international community should understand this clearly.



Asked by an audience member about a possible Turkish military operation, Erdogan said, "When the time comes, it will be done."



"We talked about the need to have better intelligence-sharing," Bush said after the meeting. "In order to chase down people who murder people you need good intelligence. We talked about the need for our militaries to stay in constant contact."



"I made it very clear to the Prime Minister that we want to work in a close way to deal with this problem," Bush said, ITAR TASS reports.



With Turkish troops massed on his country's border with Iraq, Erdogan is weighing a major cross-border attack against PKK rebels. The guerrillas have killed more than 40 Turks in the past month in cross-border raids, and pressure is growing on Erdogan to hit back.