Turkish President Abdullah Gul has warned Syria not to use the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) against Turkey, indicating that he hopes that the neighboring country does not do the same mistake it did in the past by hosting PKK terrorists Todayszaman reported
Speaking to Britain's The Financial Times on Monday, Gul recalled that Syria previously hosted members of the PKK, which the US, the European Union and Turkey all proscribe as a terrorist group, and urged it not do so again.
"I would strongly suggest and would expect that they would not get into such a dangerous game," he said. "Even though I do not think they would do that, we are still closely following the matter."
Turkey, once a close ally of the Syrian president, has gradually toughened its criticism of the Syrian regime for its brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests. Last month, Erdogan slammed Assad, suggesting that Syria would be the next country on the Arab Spring list and that Assad would eventually be ousted by his own people.
"Those who repress their own people in Syria will not survive. The time of autocracies is over. Totalitarian regimes are disappearing. The rule of the people is coming," Erdogan also said in September in Libya while addressing the Libyan people.
Claims emerged recently that Syria may use the PKK card against Turkey in response to Ankara's strong criticism of the Syrian administration.
During the interview, Gul also pushed back at Iran's efforts to depict Turkey's line on Syria as a bid to curry favor with Washington.
"When we talk to Iran, we always tell them that we are not against the Syrian regime due to pressure imposed by any other country," Gul said. "It is because of and for the people of Syria," he added.
Gul said Turkey's success in the last decade in many areas impressed the Arab world. "Turkey's success, especially during the last decade, has impressed the Arab world," he said, stressing his nation's status as a secular, democratic, free-market Muslim majority country. "For that reason they are following us closely and for that reason we have indirect influence."
As for Turkey's European Union bid, Gul insisted Ankara will press on with its bid to join the EU, even though some EU member states have, he says, begun to alienate public opinion with their "negative attitudes". "Right at the moment we are doing much better than most of the EU countries in terms of the Maastricht criteria," he said.
Commenting on the US-Turkish relations, Gul said "the period we are going through is the healthiest relations that we ever had with the US."