EU's Solana urges Turkey not to add to Iraq insecurity
(BRUSSELS) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Turkey Thursday not to add to insecurity in Iraq by moving troops into the north of the country to crack down on Kurdish rebels taking refuge there.
"The question of security (in Iraq) continues to be a fundamental issue," he told reporters in Brussels, after talks with visiting Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
"Any possibility of complicating even more the security situation in Iraq is something that should not be welcomed," he said.
"That is the message that we pass to our Turkish friends."
Ankara is exasperated by mounting violence by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Iraqi inaction against the group, which is listed as a "terrorist" organisation by Turkey and much of the international community.
The government plans to seek from the Turkish parliament a one-year authorisation to send troops into northern Iraq, where about 3,500 PKK militants are based.
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