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Turkey and Iraq finalize talks over counter-terrorism agreement. The deal allows Turkey to engage in ''hot pursuit'' of PKK terrorists and establish liaison offices on the border to coordinate the fight against the outlawed group. In a joint effort to quash members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), neighboring countries Turkey and Iraq Wednesday agreed to sign a counter-terrorism agreement today allowing Turkey ''hot pursuit'' of the terrorist group at its base in northern Iraq, under the condition that permission is first granted by Baghdad.
The agreement was reached during an overdue visit by Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani to the Turkish capital to finalize talks and sign the agreement that would enable the two countries to cooperate in their fight against terrorism. Al-Bolani arrived in Ankara Tuesday for talks on Turkish concerns over the PKK presence in northern Iraq. The Iraqi minister was supposed to travel last month as agreed between officials from both countries during Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's visit to Turkey in August. Turkey and Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding to combat terrorism during al-Maliki's visit but the two failed to finalize another deal specifically aimed at cracking down the PKK bases in the Kurdish-controlled north due to pressure from Iraqi Kurdish groups. Iraq's deputy Interior Minister Aydın Halit said the sides had reached an agreement and a deal would be signed Thursday. The officials were working on Turkish, Arabic and English versions of the text, he added. Halit's statement to the press came after a one hour long meeting between the interior minister of Turkey, Beşir Atalay, and his Iraqi counterpart. Halit did not confirm whether the agreement would allow Turkish troops to engage in hot pursuits. “Everything will become clear tomorrow,” he said. It remains unclear yet at what level the issue of hot pursuit is included in the document. Turkey would seek Iraqi authorization for future hot pursuit operations to track down and eliminate PKK groups holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, said diplomatic sources. In addition, under the agreement, liaison offices in charge of coordinating the fight against the PKK will be set up on the Turkish-Iraqi border. Turkey has long been pressing Iraq for a counter-terrorism agreement to crack down on the PKK bases but the Iraqi prime minister said then that the Iraqi parliament would have the final say on efforts to halt the cross-border attacks by the PKK into Turkey. In a bid to secure a clear commitment to root out the PKK, Ankara recently sent a draft cooperation agreement to Baghdad that entails cutting off financial and logistic support to the outlawed group, blocking its media broadcasts, allowing for the extradition of terrorists and the exchange of intelligence. Turkey has threatened military action in northern Iraq to hit the camps of the PKK if Iraq and the Unıted States fail to take measures against the terrorists. In June, the Turkish military said there were some 5,000 PKK terrorists in total, an estimated 3,000 of them based in northern Iraq. |
