Turkey believes Iraqi Kurds, who voted in large numbers in
Sunday's election, are trying to take control of Kirkuk at the
expense of local Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmens.
Ankara fears this could herald a concerted drive to build an independent
Kurdish state in northern Iraq which might in turn reignite separatism
among the Kurds of southeastern Turkey. [...]
Erdogan also took the U.S. to task for failing to crack down
on an estimated 5,000 Turkish Kurdish guerrillas holed up in the
mountains of northern Iraq.
"Their (American) excuse is that they are overwhelmed
(in Iraq) but they accept that our demands are just demands and
have promised they will deal with it. We have not yet seen action,"
said Erdogan.