WASHINGTON, D.C. - Justice Minister Cemil Cicek came to Washington, D.C. as the guest of the U.S. Department of Justice Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Speaking to reporters, Cicek said that he came to Washington, D.C. to exchange views on relations between Turkey and the United States, a close ally of his country.
Cicek said that he received invitation of Ashcroft on November 21 after terrorist incidents in Istanbul and stated that however, he thought that this invitation was decided earlier.
''The United States is an ally of us. Although there have been some breaking points in relations between the two countries from time to time, there is an 57-year alliance and we want to further improve relations,'' he stated.
Cicek said that terrorism was the main item of his agenda and stressed that there was not any joint international concept on ''definition of terrorism.'' Cicek said that there was parallelism on definition of terrorism between Turkey and the United States and stated that both Turkey and the United States recognized PKK as terrorist organization. He added that but it was impossible to say the same thing for the European Union (EU).
Stating that a big part of members of PKK terrorist organization was in north of Iraq and Turkey had some expectations on the issue from the United States, Cicek stressed that Turkey would also make cooperation with every country to remove terrorism from the Middle East.
Cicek said that Turkish and American security units had talks on terrorist incidents in Istanbul and those units shared intelligence and stated, ''a part of incident has been enlightened. But its links and connections are still being investigated.''
Noting that there were not too many problems stemming from bilateral agreements with the United States, Cicek said, ''we have some mutual demands. We will find an opportunity to discuss those things during this visit.''
Cicek said that criminals who were wanted to be extradited to the country were ordinary criminals.
Asked whether or not Uzan family was included in those criminals, Cicek said that the family was wanted with red bulletin and stated that if they were there, what was necessary on the issue would be done.
Asked whether or not Fethullah Gulen was also included in those people who were demanded to be extradited to Turkey, Cicek said, ''no, there is not any imprisonment sentence about him. There is no case. His case had been postponed for five years due to law which had been passed during the period of former government. There is not any investigation about him in Turkey.''
Cicek will meet with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Department of State Undersecretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman and Coordinator for Counterterrorism for the Department of State J. Cofer Black on Tuesday.
Cicek will also meet with White House Spokesman Scott McClellan with the title of government spokesman.
Justice Minister Cicek will come together with Ashcroft on Wednesday and other officials from Department of Justice Attorney General on Thursday.
Cicek is expected to leave Washington, D.C. for Turkey on Friday.
(EÖ-AÖ) 02.12.2003