Sporadic rallies were held on Friday across Istanbul to protest
against what the Turks called the US double standards on
terrorism.
The rallies were held when US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice arrived in Istanbul for an international meeting on Iraq after
holding talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara.
Protesters shout slogans to protest a visit
by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Istanbul November 2,
2007.??
A group of protestors gathered amid heightened securities near
the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel, where Rice is to stay for the
night before the Iraq conference, wielding banners and slogans
saying "Rice (Yankees) go home."
Turkey has threatened a military incursion into northern Iraq,
from where the PKK launched attacks, but so far the United States
has been dissuading Turkey from launching any major military
action.
The US stance has aroused anger among the Turks, who accused
Washington of having double standards on campaign against
terrorism.
While the US launched the so-called anti-terror wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq, it is dragging its feet in helping its NATO
ally Turkey to crush the PKK, branded as a terrorist group by
Washington and the European Union, they denounced.
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington put the
US favorability rating in Turkey at 9 percent, down from a height
of 52 percent in year 2000. It also found that Turks seethe United
States as the single biggest threat to their national security.
Media reports held that Rice's Istanbul trip is also tasked to
boost Turkey's confidence on the United States.
Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to
meet US President George W. Bush on Monday over the rising tensions
between the two governments on the PKK issue.
Erdogan has warned that relations between the two NATO allies
hinge on whether Bush agrees to take "concrete, urgent steps"
against the PKK.
(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2007)
