TURKEY: The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Ankara for talks with Turkish prime minister Abdullah Gul

Record ID: 560931

  • Title: TURKEY: The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Ankara for talks with Turkish prime minister Abdullah Gul
  • Date: 2nd November 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF BAN KI-MOON ARRIVING FOR MEETING WITH TURKISH PRESIDENT ABDULLAH GUL BAN AND TURKISH PRESIDENT ABDULLAH GUL AT MEETING CLOSE OF BAN BAN KI-MOON AND GUL SEATED BAN KI-MOON AND GUL AT MEETING CLOSE OF GUL AND BAN KI-MOON
  • Embargoed: 17th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVA7UAVD3RICRFU5SIJXX4BU21FL
  • Story Text: The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Ankara for talks with Turkish prime minister Abdullah Gul about the escalating tension on the Turkish border with Iraq.
    United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Ankara on Friday (November 2) for a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul to discuss the tension between Iraq and Turkey.
    Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters along the Iraqi border in preparation for a possible cross-border incursion into northern Iraq where 3,000 rebels are believed to be hiding.
    After the meeting, Ban Ki-moon is expected to head to Istanbul for a three-day conference of Iraq's neighbours.
    The meeting is expected to host permanent UN Security Council members and the Group of Eight Industrialised Countries (G8) as well as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
    Ministers and officials will meet on Saturday (November 3), and talks are expected to be dominated by tensions between Iraq and Turkey, focusing on promoting regional dialogue.
    The conference comes at a time of growing tensions over Turkish warnings of an incursion against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.
    Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The United States and the European Union, like Turkey, brand the PKK as a terrorist group.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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