ANKARA - Turkey should trust Israel, who denied news about relations with Kurdish groups in north of Iraq, Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday.
Gul told reporters that he heard about news saying that Israel was training Kurdish peshmerges in north of Iraq.
Everybody knew how sensitive Turkey was about the matter, Gul said.
Gul went on saying, ``the Israelis are telling us that the news is inaccurate. We also wish so. Everybody knows well about Turkey`s sensitivity about the region. Therefore, we should trust what they are saying.``
Milliyet daily reported today some statements of Henri Barkey, one of former advisers of the U.S. State Department. According to the daily, Barkey said that he met with Foreign Minister Gul in Washington and quoted Gul as saying that ``there was a de facto state and developments in the region were concerning only themselves as long as Turkey was not involved.``
When recalled about this news, Gul said, ``many meetings are being held in many places related with Iraq`s future. Such meetings are being held even they are denied or confirmed. The person you have mentioned is a person whom I closely know, who is both a journalist and a professor and who earlier worked at the U.S. State Department. I met him when I was in Washington. Our view about the issue is obvious. There are things attributed to Turkey related with north of Iraq and Kirkuk in the meeting that was claimed to be held and then denied. None of these statements reflect our views.``
Gul stated that Turkey`s, Turkish Foreign Ministry`s and his personal views about this issue were very clear, and Turkey often shared its views with world countries.
``We have always expressed sensitivities about developments in Iraq in all our meetings,`` Gul said.
Gul expressed hope that nothing should be misunderstood and nobody should act, taking rumors as basis.
(BRC-AÖ) 22.06.2004