Thursday, November 16, 2006
Turkey offers training for Iraqi security forces
Politics, Security, Region
Turkey's prime minister on Thursday offered training for the Iraqi police and army, and urged power-sharing among ethnic groups in the Iraqi oil center of Kirkuk. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, that his nation was ready to offer training for Iraqi security forces to help achieve stability. Erdogan also addressed Turkey's fears that Iraqi Kurds are trying to take control of the oil-rich, northern city of Kirkuk as part of their push for an independent state on Turkey's border. The city lies just south of the Kurdish autonomous region stretching across Iraq's northeast. Kurdish leaders want to annex the city. Iraq's constitution calls for a census and referendum on the issue by the end of next year. "There needs to be a plan for Kirkuk that encompasses all the ethnic groups who live there," Erdogan said.
