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US Diplomat Sees PKK as Common Enemy

21 July 2010 23:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday that the United States considered PKK as a common enemy like other terrorist organizations and al-Qaida, APA reports quoting turkishny.com web-page.
Laura H. de Otalvaro, a diplomat at the Political Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, said the United States had been working with the Turkish government against the terrorist organization PKK since 2007.
Turkey and the United States were particularly cooperating in intelligence share, Otalvaro told AA correspondent in the central province of Kayseri. Otalvaro’s remarks came after six soldiers died in a clash with terrorists in Cukurca town of the southeastern province of Hakkari. The U.S. diplomat expressed deep sorrow and offered her condolences over the dead soldiers.
Otalvaro gave use of unmanned aircraft to detect the targets as an example for intelligence sharing between Turkey and the United States, and said the United States had opened the air space over the north of Iraq some time ago to help Turkish military operations.
Turkish-U.S. cooperation was improving each passing day, Otalvaro said.
Referring to American citizen Furkan Dogan of Turkish descent who died in an Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May, Otalvaro said the United States would intervene whenever a U.S. citizen lost his/her life overseas due to violence or other reasons.
Otalvaro said U.S. Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey and some other U.S. executives met Dogan’s family.
The U.S. diplomat said her country was sad about not only the death of an American citizen but also death of Turkish citizens aboard the "Mavi Marmara" aid ship, but refrained from commenting more on this issue.
Nine people, including eight Turks and Furkan Dogan, died when Israeli forces raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on May 31. Around 30 people were wounded in the attack.
Also, Otalvaro said she had been working in Turkey as a U.S. diplomat for years, and she had learned views of opinion leaders and local administrators in many cities.
The U.S. diplomat defined Turkey’s democratic political life as active and robust, and said she was glad to observe the contacts among political parties and how parties were changing and developing.
Otalvaro said U.S. political parties were not holding so much communication and were not changing that much, and she was excited about developments in Turkey.