Gordon Brown has said he “supports the restraint of Turkey” following recent attacks on Turkish forces by separatist group PKK.
In a Downing Street press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, the PM said that he “absolutely and unequivocally” condemned the actions of the Kurdish rebels on Sunday that left 12 soldiers dead.
Read the transcript for the film below:
Prime Minister:
Good afternoon. It is a great privilege for me to welcome to London the Prime Minister of Turkey and to say that we have had very comprehensive talks about the major concerns we have, both about what is happening in the region, and also about Turkey’s accession to the European Union.
The first thing I want to say is we condemn absolutely and unequivocally the terrorist violence of PKK, the fact that 12 members of the Turkish Army have been killed, the fact that 8 have now been kidnapped and the fact that civilian violence has resulted as a result of their activities within Turkey is something that the whole world community has condemned over the last few days.
As many of you will know, we have proscribed PKK and organisations acting under its umbrella as far as the United Kingdom is concerned. We are committed to working with the Turkish government on counter terrorism activity so that we can root out these problems and we will continue to work for a diplomatic solution to the problems that exist from within Iraq itself where the Iraqi government and others we believe can play a part in ensuring that there is a proper solution to these difficulties. We will work hard with the Turkish government in trying to help them in this difficult situation in which they are faced.
Can I say that secondly we said to each other that we will support the Turkish accession negotiations to the European Union. We believe that these can, despite some of the difficulties of recent days and weeks, move forward. We believe that at the December Council of the European Union we will be able to reach agreement on the next stage and I am confident that after the discussions I have had with European leaders that this can move forward over the next few weeks and months.
We are signing today a UK-Turkish Strategic Partnership. This for me is an important recognition of the growing trade between our two countries. 1,500 British companies are involved in Turkey, 1,700 British citizens now stay in Turkey, 1.5 million tourists go every year to Turkey. And in the Strategic Partnership today we are proposing a British university in Turkey as a joint project between our two governments, we are proposing greater government-to-government involvement in trade and investment for the future, we are proposing that our Energy Minister works closely to create a stronger energy hub in the region, and we are also proposing that we work together to create secure industrial zones in Basra in Iraq to make possible the economic reconstruction and development of that area.
And so relationships between our two countries are strong, they are strengthening. I have benefited from the discussions that we have had today. I welcome you Prime Minister to London and thank you for coming here and we will continue to work on the issues that I have just listed as absolutely crucial to our country.
Mr Erdogan:
Mr Prime Minister, distinguished members of the press. We have today had an opportunity to discuss in depth some of the issues that concern our relations between Turkey and the UK. First of all I would like to thank the Prime Minister for his hospitality and his invitation to come here to London. Thank you very much. I do believe that within a common vision we shall continue to further strengthen our relations.
As the Prime Minister just mentioned, this Strategic Partnership document has been prepared between Turkey and the UK and I am very happy to announce that we have come to a point where we will sign this document. I think this document indicates the depth and breadth of the cooperation that the two countries have and it provides for future development in this relationship. And as the Turkish side we will continue to work to ensure that we fulfil what is foreseen in the document.
Let me also say that in our discussions today with the Prime Minister we had an opportunity to discuss issues related to terrorism. We have also discussed the European Union and Cyprus. We have seen once again that we share many views, on many of the international issues we share the same view. Our membership to the European Union is a priority for us, it is a priority for us to continue on this path without any hindrance and the United Kingdom to this day has shown very strong support to Turkey’s accession to the European Union. And during my tenure as Prime Minister my distinguished colleague, your predecessor Mr Blair, was always there to help in the most difficult of times and I am sure that we will get the same support from Prime Minister Brown and I have actually seen that in our previous discussion today. With respect to Turkey’s accession to the EU we are determined to accede to the European Union and we will continue to be determined in this process.
With respect to the Cyprus issue, Turkey has shown great effort to find a comprehensive settlement to this problem. If one is sincere one can see and appreciate what Turkey has been trying to do to achieve a comprehensive settlement. We view this issue within the context of the United Nations where we believe a solution must be sought and the solution must be a fair one.
With respect to combating terrorism I would like to underline one point which we share with the Prime Minister. The UK has suffered greatly from terrorism and suffers from terrorism now too, so I think the UK is well positioned to well understand where Turkey is and what Turkey is experiencing. And in our discussions earlier today we have discussed combating terrorism and he has also indicated that he is for fighting terrorism through our joint efforts. Those who know what the scourge of terrorism is do think this way because it is impossible to think in any other way. We know how terrorism can hurt people and we hope that no other country or nation faces similar difficulties and we are always ready to help any others who are faced with this threat and our track record attests to that. Unfortunately the pain we have suffered is only understood or heard after some incidents take place. Up until today Turkey has sincerely contributed to platforms to combat terrorism and we will continue to do that in the future. Of course the safety of the lives of the citizens is the most important responsibility for any government and we must understand here that these problems do not pertain to only a single country because terrorism does not develop only in a single country, terrorism has areas where it reinforces its efforts, other countries, other places which reinforce their efforts and we see how this situation grows in the neighbouring areas, and in our case we see terrorists based in northern Iraq, in Syria, then they were in Iran and in some European countries. And today unfortunately there are those who harbour terrorists and who provide funds to terrorists and we have determined those who are involved in these actions and we communicate this information to the relevant governments with documents. But there are unfortunately times when there are governments who are not sensitive to this issue, who see it fit to send any terrorist leaders that they apprehend to other countries, not Britain and to us. So we are very sad to see these developments because we find it to be very insincere to do that.
Within this framework, on 17 October 2007 the Turkish parliament issued a mandate to the Turkish government for an operation to Northern Iraq, and let me specifically underline here that any such effort would be targeting only the PKK because we have always stood side by side with the Iraqi people who have had in the past quite difficult times. We will continue to support the Iraqi people. We have no calculations whatsoever on the territorial integrity or political unity of Iraq, to the contrary we would like to see Iraq proceed through a democratic process and I want to specifically underline this here.
Another point, the volume of trade between Turkey and the UK has exceeded £6 billion as of 2006 and the number of British tourists coming to Turkey is more than 1.5 million, as the Prime Minister has said before. Additionally the number of British investors in Turkey is around 1,500 and the British nationals who have acquired property, who have settled in Turkey, reached about 1,700 which means that these people constitute an important bridge for further relations between the peoples on both sides.
Taking this opportunity I would like to once again thank my colleague for his invitation.
Prime Minister:
Thank you very much. And I can just refer you to the UK/Turkey Strategic Partnership that we are publishing today and I am very grateful for Prime Minister Erdogan’s remarks about the importance that we both attach to moving forward stronger relationships in the future.
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