[NYTr] US asks Turkey for restraint on Iraq

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP - Oct 13, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TURKEY?SITE=MITRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

U.S. asks Turkey for restraint on Iraq

By C. ONUR ANT
Associated Press Writer

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Two senior U.S. officials promised Saturday
that they would convey to Iraq Turkey's unease over Kurdish rebels in
the north but they also expressed concern over the possibility of a
Turkish military offensive in the region.

In Moscow, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged "a
difficult time" in relations with Turkey. She appealed for restraint
against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and in Turkey's angry response
to a genocide resolution in Congress.

Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, and Eric
Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, met with Turkish
officials in a bid to assuage anger over the resolution, which would
label the World War I-era killing of Armenians by Turks a genocide.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations
after a House committee's approval of the resolution last week and
warned of serious repercussions if Congress passes the resolution.

The committee's approval raised concerns that Turkey may be less
restrained about defying the United States.

U.S. officials said Friday there are about 60,000 Turkish troops massed
along the country's southern border with Iraq. But the U.S. military
has not seen activity to suggest an imminent offensive against Kurdish
rebels based in northern Iraq who have been crossing the border to
attack Turkish forces.

Turkey's parliament was expected to approve a government request to
authorize an Iraq campaign as early as next week. The U.S. is concerned
a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq would disrupt one of the
country's few relatively stable areas.

Kurdish rebels killed more than 15 Turkish soldiers in the past week
and are blamed for an ambush that killed 12 people the week before. The
government responded to the deaths by announcing tougher measures
against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has bases in northern
Iraq and has been fighting the Turkish government since 1984.

Fried and Edelman promised to convey Turkey's concerns to Iraqi
officials in the Kurdish region. At the same time, "we told our
concerns" over any Turkish military incursion, Edelman told reporters
in the capital Ankara after meeting Turkish Foreign Ministry officials.

Turkey's military preparations come amid concern in Washington that the
genocide resolution could jeopardize supply routes the American
military has used to move armored vehicles to troops in Iraq.

About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey,
as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there.
U.S. bases also get water and other supplies overland by Turkish
truckers who cross into Iraq's north.

At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Turkey denies that the World War I-era
deaths constituted genocide and says the toll has been inflated. Turkey
also contends the dead were victims of civil war and unrest that killed
Muslims as well as the overwhelmingly Christian Armenians.

Fried promised the Bush administration would work to prevent the
adoption of the resolution.

"We will do everything we can so that this resolution will not come to
the House floor," he said in an interview with private NTV television.

The U.S. officials flew to Ankara from Moscow, where they had been on
the trip with Rice.

"Secretary of State Rice Condoleezza Rice asked us before we came here
to express that the Bush administration is opposed to this resolution,"
said Edelman, who was the U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2003-2005.

Rice said she spoke Friday by telephone with Turkey's president, prime
minister and foreign minister about the genocide resolution.

"They were dismayed," she said. "I urged restraint," she added,
referring to both the reaction to the genocide resolution and in the
situation in northern Iraq.

"The Turkish government, I think, is trying to react responsibly. They
recognize how hard we worked to prevent that vote from taking place,"
Rice said.

[Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Moscow contributed to this
report.]

© 2007 The Associated Press.