Turkey, Iran to continue cooperation on national security: FM

Turkey, Iran to continue cooperation on national security: FM

Turkey and Iran will continue cooperation on national security, said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Ali-Akbar Salehi in Turkey's capital of Ankara on Friday.

"Our joint commitment to fight the PKK (Turkish outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party) and the PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) will strongly continue. We will work together to liquidate the terrorist threat entirely," Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu said the PKK posed a threat to the entire region, adding that a high-level security committee of Turkish and Iranian officials would convene soon.

Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister denied reports that Iranian forces captured a senior leader of PKK and later released him.

"Murat Karayilan was never caught by Iranians. Why would have we released him if we had captured him?" Salehi said.

A total of 24 Turkish soldiers were killed and 18 others injured in southeastern Turkey in multiple PKK attacks early Wednesday, one of the deadliest attacks in decades.

In response to the attacks, Turkish military launched a cross- border incursion into five regions in northern Iraq in fight against the PKK.

Clashes between the PKK and Turkish army have escalated since the summer as talks between the imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, and Turkish officials aimed at ending the conflict have failed.

Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK over the past two decades.

Editor: Yang Lina

English.news.cn   2011-10-21 20:25:59