WASHINGTON - U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said on Friday that Turkey ended its cross-border operation in the north of Iraq according to its military and political assessments, not by the influence of the United States.
When recalled that there is a concern in the public view in Turkey that withdrawal of Turkish troops from the north of Iraq came after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' visit (to Ankara) and U.S. President George Bush's call for immediate withdrawal, Casey said, "first of all, we're pleased to see that the Turks carried out their commitment to us and to the Iraqis to have this operation be limited in scope and duration. That is something that they have always said they intended to do."
"I believe that the Turkish government took this decision because it made sense militarily and politically to the government of Turkey, and not in response to any kind of actions on our part," he added.
Casey noted, "the important thing, though, is that the PKK is and remains a problem for Turkey, for the United States and for Iraq, and what we want to do is continue to work with the government of Turkey as well as the government of Iraq to be able to resolve it and put an end to the threat that it poses to all of us."
Casey said, "the main point here is that PKK is a terrorist group that's a threat to everyone involved. It's a threat to Iraqis, it's a threat to Turks and it's a threat to the United States. And we all need to work together to resolve it because this isn't an issue that's going to be solved by any one of us individually."