First top level military "three-way" meeting takes place in Ankara
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The first top level military official meeting concerning moves against the PKK, following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's November 5 meeting with US President George W. Bush at the White House, took place yesterday in Ankara.
US military commanders General David Petraeus and General James Cartwright arrived in the Turkish capital yesterday early to meet with Turkish General Ergin Saygun. The meeting, which lasted for 3.5 hours, focused on the presence of PKK terror forces in northern Iraq, and the possibility of a Turkish over the border military intervention. General Petraeus noted during the meeting "The terror organization PKK is the enemy of not only Turkey, but also the US and Iraq."
Following the return of Petraeus and Cartwright to Iraq, the Turkish miltary's General Staff headquarters issued a brief written statement, reiterating the supportive statements it had heard from both the White House and the top US military commanders in Iraq.
Sources in Ankara did note that prior to General Petraeus's visit to Ankara, his special representative, Michael Barbero, had visited the northern Iraq's city of Erbil to meet with
Necirvan Barzani, the Kurdish regional Prime Minister, regarding new precautions to be taken in that region against the PKK.