Aksu: Any Country Cannot Say That Terrorism Is Not Its Problem

ALMATY - Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said on Thursday that any country could not say ''terrorism is not its problem'' since terrorism became an international threat.
Aksu, who is currently in Kazakhstan to attend ministerial-level meeting of the member countries to the Conference of Interactions and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), visited the Turkish Embassy in Almaty.
Replying to questions of Turkish journalists during the visit, Aksu said, ''CICA is a process which was initiated in 1992 upon initiatives of President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan. Turkey has been supporting Kazakhstan since the very beginning to improve this process that aims to develop an international cooperation mechanism in Asia.''
''An important step was taken to institutionalize the process during the first heads of state and government summit of CICA was held in Almaty in 2002. The ministerial-level meeting of CICA will start tomorrow (Friday). We believe that the process will help us to put into force political and military measures and mechanisms in order to consolidate the atmosphere of peace and security among the member countries,'' he said.
Recalling that Turkey signed security cooperation agreements with 43 countries, Aksu said that Turkey and Kazakhstan would sign a bilateral cooperation agreement in fight against terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organized crimes in the coming days.
''Terrorism has become an international threat. Any country cannot say 'terrorism is not its problem' especially after the September 11th events in the United States,'' Aksu added.
(UK-MS) 21.10.2004