US vows to use all Predators in Turkey

Enis Berberoğlu SEOUL / Hürriyet

Erdoğan meets with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar (L) and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani (C) during a nuclear summit in Seoul. DHA photo

The United States has promised to use its all of its Predator unmanned aircraft based in Turkey to assist Turkey in its fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), daily Hürriyet reported.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said U.S. President Barack Obama also told him that cooperation between Turkey and the US will extend to operations against PKK outposts outside Turkey, during their two-hour, 15-minute meeting in Seoul, prior to the international nuclear summit there. On Iraq, Erdoğan said the U.S. wants Iraq to determine its own future as of 2014. Erdoğan also shared Turkey’s view of developments in Syria with the world leaders in attendance at the nuclear summit in Seoul, expressing his belief that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad cannot solve the current problems in his country, he will eventually be forced to step down.

A road map to a solution will be drawn up at the “Friends of Syria” meeting in Istanbul on April 1, Erdoğan said. The number of Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey may reach as many as 100,000 in the coming days, he said, given the recent shelling of Aleppo and Azaz. Turkey is currently host to around 17,000 refugees, including 10 ex-generals and 19 ex-colonels who have defected from Syrian army, Erdoğan said.