"Daily Press Briefing
Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
August 8, 2005
TURKEY/IRAQ
Trilateral Meeting with Turkey, Iraq / Counterterrorism Talks / PKK
QUESTION: Mr. Ereli, do you have anything on the trilateral meeting on "Kurdish extremists" here at the State Department under the chairmanship of Under Secretary Matthew Bryza last Saturday?
MR. ERELI: I don't know if I'd call it what you call it, but yes, we had a trilateral meeting between the United States, Turkey and Iraq over the weekend. Our delegation was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza. In these meetings, delegations from the United States, Turkey and Iraq had trilateral counterterrorism talks. They were good discussions, very open, very productive. We discussed a range of mechanisms to fight terrorism and increase law enforcement. A particular focus of the discussions was the PKK and its affiliates and how we could all cooperate to eliminate the terrorist threat to Turkey from Northern Iraq.
As a result of these talks, the delegations agreed on a framework for future actions. They also agreed to reconvene and to set up working groups that would continue technical discussions between the formal meetings.
QUESTION: Do you know who represented Iraq?
MR. ERELI: I don't have that for you.
CYPRUS
Congressional Travel to Northern Cyprus
U.S. Supports Efforts to Ease the Economic Isolation of Turkish Cypriots
QUESTION: And on Cyprus, today a bunch of staffers from the U.S. Congress arrive in the illegal airport of Tymbou in the Turkish-occupied area of Cyprus at the suggestion and the approval of the Department of State. What prompted the Department of State to allow such an illegal action against domestic and international law?
MR. ERELI: Well, first of all, it's not illegal. There's nothing illegal about using the airport there. Second of all, it's -- the State Department does not allow or disallow travel by Congressional staffers. This is a private, unofficial staff delegation. They are responsible for their travel. They're responsible for their decisions. And I would refer you to them for elaboration on how they decided to go and what they did when they went there.
But we certainly are not going to either permit or prevent them from doing it. And moreover, our position is well known that we support efforts to ease the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriots and that we, as U.S. Government personnel, are certainly legally eligible to fly to Ercan airport.
QUESTION: And who is isolating the Turkish Cypriot, the Turkish army or the Greek Cypriots?
MR. ERELI: Let's move on. We've been over this ground many times before.
QUESTION: Okay. One -- do you consider the visit as a unilateral or a bilateral issue?
MR. ERELI: We consider the visit as a unofficial staff delegation wanting to go to Northern Cyprus and that it's perfectly appropriate for them to do so if they want to.
QUESTION: But it's an illegal area --
MR. ERELI: No, sir, it's not an illegal area.
QUESTION: Why is it not illegal?
MR. ERELI: There's nothing illegal -- there's nothing illegal about using Ercan airport to visit Northern Cyprus.
QUESTION: But it's under occupation.
MR. ERELI: Okay. Whatever -- whatever, it's not illegal to use it, there's nothing wrong about using the airport.
QUESTION: Can you explain this exactly?
MR. ERELI: Anyway, we've -- I think we've exhausted pretty much this topic. "
More:Daily Press Briefing for August 8 -- Transcript
