In the wake of increasing tension due to a series of illegal demonstrations by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) over the past few weeks which have cast doubts over the future of the government's democratization initiative, Turkey's interior minister had talks yesterday with Iraqi and US officials at a meeting held in Baghdad to coordinate counterterrorism efforts against the PKK.

A trilateral committee was formed in Baghdad in November 2008 by senior Iraqi, Turkish and US officials to combat the PKK. The November 2008 meeting was also attended by two representatives from the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, including regional Interior Minister Karim Sinjari.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his departure from Ankara for Baghdad, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay, the coordinator of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government's democratization initiative, said considerable progress has been made through the trilateral committee's meetings which discuss steps to be taken and elements of cooperation for eliminating the presence of the PKK in Iraq. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by the EU, the US and Turkey, has bases in northern Iraq.

"However this process is not yet at a level which can meet our demands and expectations. We want a complete end to the PKK presence in Iraqi territory and its leaders to be captured and extradited to Turkey with active support from our Iraqi brothers and our ally, the US. Briefly we want the terrorist threat coming from Iraqi territory to be brought to an end. That's our goal," Atalay said.

The PKK's activities are harming the democratization initiative launched by the government which also envisions expanding rights for the Kurdish people of the country. "We will express our determined stance concerning the battle for the democratization initiative. I hope that we will return from Iraq with more concrete results and decisions," Atalay said.

Since yesterday, Atalay hasn't refer to the issue but in remarks delivered in late November, he said that the UN-led Makhmur refugee camp would be on the agenda of the trilateral meeting with Iraqi and US officials.

At the time, Atalay said that the government plans to intensify its efforts to bring more than half of those in the Makhmur refugee camp, located in northern Iraq and where most of the PKK members are located, back to Turkey as part of the government's democratic initiative to settle the Kurdish issue.

In October, the PKK turned over eight of its members to Turkish authorities at the Habur border gate, a groundbreaking move that may lead to the laying down of arms by the PKK, strengthening the hand of the government in its recently launched democratization package to end the country's decades-old Kurdish problem. Twenty-six individuals from Makhmur also returned with the group, bringing the total of October returnees to 34.

Yet, in recent days, instead of more voluntary returns from the Iraqi territory, the agenda has been marked by violence following the tensions triggered by the death of two citizens on Tuesday during a protest against the closure of a pro-Kurdish party. Nonetheless, the now-defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP) announced on Friday that they have reconsidered their decision to resign from Parliament and will continue to serve despite a court decision to ban their party, eliminating a potential source of political instability.

Many questions have lately been raised concerning whether a hard-line wing within pro-Kurdish politics, which is closer to the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, rather than reconciling policy makers within the legitimate parties, have outweighed the dovish Kurdish stance.

Atalay will today proceed to the northern Iraqi province of Arbil accompanied by Iraqi National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waili who also participated in yesterday's talks in Baghdad.

Turkey, Iraq and the United States have agreed to set up a joint command center in Arbil in January to gather intelligence to fight the PKK. While in Arbil, Atalay will visit the center used for intelligence sharing for operational purposes. Atalay called his planned meetings with Iraqi Kurdish officials in Arbil as a continuation of the trilateral meeting in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday that four PKK members had surrendered to security forces in Silopi, a town in the southeastern Anatolian province of Şırnak. The four, one of whom was female, were sent to Diyarbakır after being questioned by a prosecutor, Anatolia said.

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