Obama, Erdoan speak by phone vow cooperation against terrorism
Date
1/20/2016 6:16:05 AM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoanon Jan. 19 pledged continued cooperation in the fight against militants including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the outlawedKurdistan Workers’ Party(PKK) the White House and Turkish presidential sources said.
During his phone call to Erdoan Obama offered his condolences for last week’s bombing in Istanbul when 10Germantourists were killed in a suicide attack blamed on ISIL the White House and Turkish presidential sources said.
Obama also condemned a recent string of attacks by thePKKagainst Turkish security forces and he stressed the need for de-escalation the White House said in a statement.
The two leaders said the fight against terrorism would be among a number of topics on the agenda when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visits Turkey on Jan. 23.
NATO member Turkey a member of the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIL in Syria and Iraq has increasingly become a target for theSunniMuslim militants.
Prime MinisterAhmet Davutolublamed ISIL for the bombing on Jan. 12 in Istanbul’s historicSultanahmetSquare. The suicide bomber is thought to have crossed recently from Syria.
ISIL is also believed to be behind other attacks last year in Turkey including one in the capitalAnkarain which more than 100 people were killed.
Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast is currently engulfed in the worst violence since the 1990s after the collapse last July of a two-year-long ceasefire withPKKmilitants.
Last week the PKK deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and theEuropean Unionas well as by Turkey attacked a police station in a Diyarbakir district with a truck bomb killing six people including a baby and two toddlers.
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