Turkey wants US to thwart Kurdish power

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. “Our common goal is to keep Iraq united. Territorial integrity of Iraq should be preserved. Political unity of Iraq should be kept,” he said.

“There are some dangers,” he added, saying parts of Iraq had been safe havens for terrorists who attacked Turkey, and that some were still there.

“We hope that the United States will pay good attention on this and will deal with this problem since they are the authority in Iraq so far.” Asked if the United States was doing enough, he said: “We are expecting more.”

He did not elaborate.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to visit Turkey this weekend. Her visit follows a trip to Ankara this week by Douglas Feith, US Undersecretary of Defence.

Kurds voted in large numbers in Sunday’s Iraqi election, while many Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmens in Kirkuk appeared to boycott the election in protest at what they saw as voting rules favouring Kurds.

Turkey has been pleased that ethnic and religious clashes have not erupted in Iraq, but was concerned about the possibility of trouble along those lines, Gul said.

“We see some unwise developments over there, therefore we draw the attention of everybody, in Iraq and outside Iraq, to notice this.”