ANKARA (CIHAN) - Foreign Affairs Advisor and Chief Secretary of the Turkish President, Sermet Atacanli has told a regular press conference at Çankaya Presidential Palace on Friday that the Turkish President Ahmed Necdet Sezer will ask the US President Bush during the Istanbul end-of-June summit to ensure the removal of the PKK terrorist organization from Northern Iraq.
"Turkey to date has been demanding measures from the United States against the PKK. Turkish people have also the same expectations and are very sensitive on the issue. Turkey expects concrete steps to ease the concerns of the Turkish people," Atacanlý said at the press conference.
Sermet Atacanli said that the US President George W. Bush would pay an official visit to Ankara on June 26 before the NATO Summit in Istanbul on June 27-29 but that he could not give further details of President Bush`s visit to Ankara due to security concerns.
Atacanli said that President Bush would be received by President Ahmed Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
Commenting on the US `Greater Middle East` project, Atacanli reiterated Turkey`s thesis that reforms should not be imposed but that the instead inner dynamics of Middle Eastern countries should be activated in order to bring in the necessary reforms. He added that the Arab-Israeli conflict would be the other main topic of the Sezer-Bush meeting.
Turkey has been seeking to persuade the US to expel the outlawed pro-Kurdish PKK terrorist organization who are hiding in camps in the Kandil Mountains in Northern Iraq.