(zaman.com) - United States of America (US) Ambassador to Ankara Ross L. Wilson admitted on Tuesday morning that he was not certain his country had done everything possible to help Turkey in its fight against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Wilson made his comments on Turkish-US relations in the Aegean city of Izmir where he is inspecting preparations for the 230th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, reports Trend .
''Turkish-US relations have made visible progress in the past twelve months. The number of high-level visits, including that of Secretary of State Rice, reflects this progress," Wilson stated.
Wilson went on to add, "Of course there are many areas we have to work on….I am not sure that the US has done everything possible to help Turkey with its struggle against the PKK, that the US did everything it could have done. We have made some progress. But, there remain more things we have to do. Rice also touched upon this issue during her April visit".
Ankara has periodically complained to the US authorities due to their failure to crack-down on PKK terrorists in the mountainous regions of North Iraq.
Terrorist activities across Turkey experienced a resurgence following the ending of the unilateral cease-fire of the PKK terror organization two years ago. One hundred and ninety one Turkish security force personnel have now been killed in PKK attacks since June 2004.
The PKK terrorist organization caused the death of about 37,000 people in Turkey between 1984 and 1999. More than 4,000 soldiers, 2,000 police and about 30,000 people have died in PKK related terror.