By RIA Novosti
Ankara : The US has started sharing intelligence on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), spearheading an armed homeland movement, with Turkey.
“Real and timely intelligence sharing work has begun,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Wednesday.
During a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he visited Washington Nov 5, US President George W. Bush had pledged to share military intelligence with Ankara on Kurdish militants.
Before his US visit, Erdogan told the country’s parliament two weeks back that Washington should come to the aid of Ankara to deal with the uprising of the PKK, which is placed by US on its terror list.
In mid-October, Turkey’s parliament sanctioned military cross-border operations against PKK separatists following an earlier government request and despite opposition from Washington and Baghdad.
The Kurds, an ethnic group comprising 20 percent of Turkish population, live in the mountainous and upland areas where the borders of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria meet.