Statements by U.S. offficials

Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Interview with Tulin Daloglu, TRT

U.S. State Department
Washington, DC

February 5, 2007

TRT:  Ambassador, first of all thank you so much for accepting the interview.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül will meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tomorrow.  Issues such as the so-called Armenian Genocide Bill, PKK, and Kirkuk will be some of the subjects that the two foreign ministers are going to discuss.

Is this a regular, routine dialogue between two friends, between two allies, or shall we put some different kind of significance to tomorrow’s talks?

Assistant Secretary Fried:  Nothing we do with Turkey is routine, if by routine you mean without significance.  Turkey is a serious country, a strong regional partner and an ally of the United States.  Everything we do, everything on our agenda with Turkey, is important, whether it’s the issues you named or it’s our cooperation in energy or our support for Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution. There is never a shortage of critical things to discuss with our Turkish friends, and I’m glad Foreign Minister Gül is coming.

TRT:  What shall we expect from tomorrow’s meeting then?  What concrete decisions are going to be taken?

Assistant Secretary Fried:  I think there are going to be very serious consultations about Iraq, possibly Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, but obviously the PKK issue will come up.  We are well aware of concerns in Turkey.  Our cooperation is of a nature that I can’t discuss it on television, but the Turkish side is well aware that we take this very seriously and our discussions are increasingly, let us say, concrete.

TRT:  On the Kirkuk referendum, it is something very important for the Turkish side.  What is the U.S. policy on Kirkuk?  Are you willing to go ahead with the Kirkuk referendum as stated in the Iraqi Constitution?  Or do you see that it would be wise to delay the referendum as stated in the ISG report?

Assistant Secretary Fried:  Look, we have to respect the Iraqi constitution, but I would put the question a different way.  Iraq’s future is obviously important to Turkey, and, specifically, Turkey’s relations with the Kurdish regional government are terribly important.

We all know that the PKK is a terrorist organization.  We all know that a viable, unified federal Iraq is critical for Turkey as well as for the United States.  The question for Turkey is what way is best for building the confidence between Turkey and Iraq as a whole and Turkey and the regional governments in the north.  So I’ll answer the question that way.

TRT:  Fantastic.

Turan Comez, a member of the Turkish Parliament and also a deputy from the ruling party had this to say in an interview where he is saying the Iraqi embassies in Europe started to grant citizenship to PKK terrorists who live in Europe.  He says that he has enough evidence to claim that.  Those PKK terrorists have been moved to Kirkuk with heavy weaponry.

Do you have any comments on that?

Assistant Secretary Fried:  That doesn’t sound right to me.  I was gratified to learn this morning that French authorities have arrested a number of PKK terrorists. That’s a good thing and it shows that our work, that the West Europeans take this seriously, and we’ve encouraged them to do so.  It’s a good step forward; there need to be more.

Look, I understand how emotional this issue is, and not without reason.  But our cooperation in the past has yielded results and I don’t doubt that it will yield results in the future.

TRT:  Ambassador, there has been news about U.S. cooperation with PEJAK. Let me ask you directly.  Does the United States provide directly or indirectly any support of PEJAK which is an outlet of PKK in Iraq?

Assistant Secretary Fried:  We don’t support any terrorist group or any affiliates of a terrorist group, whether it’s the PKK or any of the various names that it uses.  We don’t support that.  If Turkey has any information about that they need only get us that information and we will be happy to clear it up.  I would suggest that none of our Turkish friends should hold this back.  If they have a concern, they should talk to us about it.

TRT:  On the PKK, Turkey keeps talking to the United States, demanding that concrete steps be taken against the PKK terrorist base in Northern Iraq.  What’s the U.S. response?  Do you think it has been satisfactory so far?

Assistant Secretary Fried:  Obviously, it’s not satisfactory until the PKK threat to Turkey is gone.  That’s my definition of satisfactory.  If not gone, if that isn’t possible, then severely degraded.  That’s what we need to do.

But the question for Turkey is what set of strategies working with the United States, working with the Kurdish regional government in the north, working with Iraq as a whole, will be most effective in reducing this threat?

We have no sympathy for the PKK and its aims.  We have obviously a lot of sympathy for good relations between the Kurdish regional government and Turkey. 

TRT:  Are you satisfied with the Turkish cooperation in the fight against PKK, and the [inaudible] that you are bringing to Iraq, and what would you say to the Turkish Foreign Minister tomorrow in how to increase this cooperation between the two countries?

Assistant Secretary Fried:  I’m not going to get into the details of what Secretary Rice and Minister Gül might discuss, but I will say this.  It’s not for me to criticize anything Turkey is doing with respect to the PKK.  The question is rather how can we work most effectively to support Turkish security and to support a unified Iraq and to support good Turkish-Kurdish relations?  That’s the answer.

TRT:  To change the subject, a very unfortunate event that took place in Turkey, the beloved Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was murdered not too long time ago.  That had brought into the discussion the Article 301, where most of the Western countries are kindly requesting, I guess, Turkey to have a look into Article 301.  Do you think that when you make such a statement, is this a direct intervention into Turkish domestic affairs?

Assistant Secretary Fried:  I would not make any such statement. I would say this, it is Minister Gül himself who said that the time has come for Turkey, for its own reasons, to look at this article. I support what Minister Gül said.  I do not believe you’ll find the American government at all has exerted pressure on Turkey.

I’d put it this way.  I think Minister Gül is right.  I think Turkish democracy has developed to the point where this article looks like an anachronism.  Turkey doesn’t pretend to be a democracy; Turkey is a democracy.  And in its development it’s looking as all democracies do at various pieces of its past which no longer have relevance.  I think Minister Gül is correct, and I think other Turks are saying more eloquently than I ever could that it is time to change this because you’re not the country you used to be.  This is the answer; not any kind of outside pressure.  You should do it because you need to for your own reasons, not because we ask you to.

TRT:  Thank you.  With that note I think we have come to an end of the interview.  I do really appreciate you taking the time in talking to TRT.  Thanks Ambassador.

Assistant Secretary Fried:  It’s my pleasure.