'The Situation Has Become … Unacceptable'

Has the United States provided any intelligence assistance to Turkey?
Yes, the cooperation between the United States and Turkey involves intelligence sharing. But how actionable that intelligence information is, I cannot say.
 
So they have provided intelligence information about the PKK?
I would assume yes. But everything is relative. How important that [intelligence] is, I cannot really judge. But from what I've seen, it has not been very effective.

There's been some speculation that the Americans might be OK with airstrikes across the border, as opposed to ground forces across the border. In that case, perhaps they would provide actionable intelligence on target sets for airstrikes. Does that sound like …
I don't know if there is that kind of distinction in the minds of American authorities. What I see from official declarations is that they are opposed to Turkish military action [across the border]. But then, those who are responsible for the security of the area cannot expect Turkey to sit idly by while terrorists coming from northern Iraq are killing people in Turkey.

The Iraqi Kurds lay claim to the Iraqi city of Kirkuk and plan to absorb the oil-rich area into the borders of autonomous Kurdistan. Turkey is opposed to this, right?
Turkey is opposed to a change of status quo for that city. Over the years, of course, Saddam Hussein has really altered the demography of that particular city. And now people are talking about the Kurds who were supposedly evicted from their places in Kirkuk during the Saddam days, that they're coming back to their city. This is something that is very dangerous. About 600,000 Kurds have been placed now in Kirkuk. This has more or less rendered the referendum [on Kirkuk's future], which is envisaged in the Iraqi Constitution, irrelevant. It will be a foregone conclusion. After the demographic changes that have already been done by the Kurdish entity there, it's going to be meaningless. What we are saying is that the Iraqi government needs more time to fulfill the obligations set forth in the Constitution before a referendum takes place. It would be quite impossible to have a referendum now.

In the Constitution, the referendum should be held by the end of the year.
That's right. But it seems more unlikely now.

What would Turkey's response be if there were a referendum?
We are urging those who are responsible not to [allow] this to take place now. It will also be unconstitutional. I don't want to speculate about a referendum taking place this year. It would be a grave mistake.

Some analysts are suggesting that the Iraqi Kurds are using the PKK as a kind of bargaining chip to be used with Turkey.
If they're thinking that way, perhaps they're making a big mistake, because they need to have the best of relations with Turkey in order to have anything viable in the north of the country. Turkey has been very helpful to Iraqi Kurds over the past 15 or 16 years. You will recall in 1991, when Saddam's forces had an onslaught in the north of the country, and 500,000 Kurds fled to Turkey. It took two days [for them to flee], and they went back after two years. And who took care of them during that time? It was Turkey, which gave them shelter, safety, food, something to wear, even jobs. Those who think that Turkey is against the Kurds are very much mistaken. We have our own citizens of Kurdish origins who are relatives of the people in the north of Iraq. We want to have the best of relations. Now, what we need is support from them. What we need is to cut the logistical support to the PKK in the area.