"Turkey expects more from US in northern Iraq
03 February 2005
BEIJING: Turkey expects the United States to do more to keep northern Iraq from becoming a safe haven for terrorists and check a Kurdish push for power there, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday.
Speaking in an interview during a visit to Beijing, Gul sidestepped a question about whether US forces would be allowed to use Turkey as a staging point for any pre-emptive strike on suspected Iranian nuclear facilities, saying it was not yet an issue.
Turkey believes Iraqi Kurds are trying to take control in the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk and fears that could herald a concerted drive to build an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, which might in turn reignite separatism among the Kurds of southeastern Turkey. "
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