Just one day after His Excellency Ahmet Davutoğlu, the Foreign Minister of Turkey, was addressing the UN’s High Level Symposium on Terrorism, a bomb tore through Turkey’s capital. The attack was immediately attributed by authorities to the PKK – a Kurdish independence group.
Davutoğlu was calling for European countries to stop granting asylum to members of the PKK and to start treating the PKK with the same hard line as Al-Qaeda:
“We expect the international community to act in compliance with their international obligations to fight all forms of terror. The PKK is based in Northern Iraq, from where it launches its attacks on Turkish soil. This cannot be accepted. The PKK has an elaborate structure in numerous countries, particularly in Europe, from where it continues its terrorism financing, recruitment and propaganda activities and drug trafficking. This should not be tolerated. It is high time for these countries to take determined action against the PKK and its affiliates, and to bring to an end its ability to act with impunity on their territories. International cooperation against terrorism cannot be selective, or limited to fighting Al Qaeda alone. Otherwise, we will fail in our collective effort to eliminate terrorism in all its forms. “
Turkey has flown 58 sorties over Northern Iraq since 17th August 2011, saying that it has been bombing targets such as control points, weapons and ammunition stores in the Kurdish stronghold.