Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the United States on 1 February 2005 of standing by while Iraqi Kurdish groups pursued ambitions that Ankara warned could destabilize the broader region. Speaking at a parliamentary meeting of his Justice and Development Party, he said forces that claimed to bring democracy had shown indifference to anti-democratic behavior.
Ankara's central concern is Kurdish efforts to take control of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city that some Iraqi Kurdish leaders regard as a future capital. Türkiye fears that a formal Kurdish state in northern Iraq would encourage separatist sentiment within its own borders.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül warned in a newspaper interview that Türkiye could take action if communal violence erupts in Kirkuk, a city home to substantial Arab and Turkmen populations as well as Kurds. Türkiye has long backed the Turkmen community, which shares ethnic ties with Ankara.
Erdoğan also raised concerns about demographic changes in Kirkuk since the 2003 US-led invasion, arguing that more Kurds had settled there than those previously expelled under Saddam Hussein and that they had been permitted to vote in Sunday's Iraqi elections. With Sunni Arab areas largely boycotting the ballot, Kurdish parties are expected to hold a strong share of seats in the parliament that will draft Iraq's constitution.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in February 2005, in its own words.