[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 16 (Monday, April 24, 1995)]
[Pages 659-662]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With Prime Minister Tansu 
Ciller of Turkey

April 19, 1995

    The President. Let me say that, as always, it's good to have Prime 
Minister Ciller back in Washington. I welcome her here. Turkey is a 
valued, important ally of the United States, and our relationship will 
become even more important in the years ahead.
    We're about to go into a meeting where we will discuss a number of 
issues, her programs for democratization and for economic reform, the 
Turkish operation in Northern Iraq, which obviously, the United States 
hopes will be limited in duration and scope. We'll talk about Cyprus and 
a number of other issues--whatever the Prime Minister wants to discuss. 
But I'm looking forward to the conversation, and I'm glad she's here.

Turkish Operations in Iraq

    Q. Do you expect her to set a date for the evacuation from Iraq? And 
is Iraq supporting her drive against the Kurds?
    The President. Why don't you ask her those questions?
    Q. I will. Do you plan to set a date for withdrawal from Iraq? And 
is Iraq supporting this drive against the Kurds? Are there good Kurds 
and bad Kurds?
    Prime Minister Ciller. As you know, we were together in the fight 
against Iraq in the Gulf crisis, and then we were together again with 
the United States in Provide Comfort to protect the Kurdish people in 
Northern Iraq against Saddam's regime. And it so happened, however, that 
Turkey was probably

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the only ally which paid--who paid very high costs because we happen to 
have a border with Iraq. And Northern Iraq, in time, became a no-man's 
land.
    And this was not a decision that I enjoyed taking, but it so 
happened that the terrorists simply settled in Northern Iraq and planned 
to have operations within my country passing the borders. Any Western 
country in my position would have to have--would take the same kind of 
decision that I did. And we are there only for a limited time. We have 
gotten hold of the bases that we wanted to do. The majority of the job 
is done and over with. The withdrawal will be very soon, as I have said 
from the beginning.
    The reason that I cannot announce a date is because it would not be 
fair for those people up on the mountains, 1,500 feet from the ground--
meters from the ground, not feet--in the caves, in the snow, and they 
are approaching our borders. What they are doing is searching the caves 
up on the mountains for the guns and the ammunitions that would have 
been used to kill the innocent people in my country.
    So I have to say that I'm very grateful to President Clinton for his 
support and for the fact that they knew about what was happening in 
Northern Iraq, that this became a no-man's land without authority, and 
it's not our making. It is not only our responsibility either. We have 
to think of a way to handle this. Otherwise, Turkey always ends up being 
the only ally to continually pay for this operation and the end result 
of this operation.
    Q. Are you adamantly against the establishment of a state of 
Kurdistan? Isn't this the motive of the rebels?
    Prime Minister Ciller. We are very friendly towards the Kurdish 
people in Northern Iraq. We have nothing against it. In fact, the 
Kurdish people in Northern Iraq were quite happy to see us come in 
because what had happened is that the Kurdish elements had been pushed 
towards south and had to evacuate Northern Iraq because of the 
terrorists. Now that the terrorists have simply run away, there is the 
possibility of these Kurdish elements coming back to Northern Iraq and 
settling.
    We had, as you know, opened up our borders to the Kurdish people in 
Northern Iraq. Close to a million people came over after the Gulf 
crisis, and we sheltered them and we fed them. And last year only, we 
paid $13.5 million in foodstuff to the Kurdish people living in Northern 
Iraq. And every year, we supply the electricity and basic needs. So this 
has nothing to do with the Kurdish people.

Turkey

    Q. Prime Minister, today in Turkey 21 people have been arrested on 
allegations of trying to assassinate you. I wondered how you felt about 
your own security, if you were worried about the stability of your 
government.
    Prime Minister Ciller. Well, I am not worried about the security of 
my country or myself. I have a mission, and that mission is a peace 
mission for the area. And that's what I'm going to discuss with 
President Clinton. And Turkey's actual acceptance into the European 
Community and Customs Union, I think, is a historic kind of a 
turnaround. And I have to thank again the President's administration and 
to President Clinton for the very historic support they have given on 
the issue, because had Turkey been separated from Europe, it would have 
meant that fundamentalism would have moved up to the borders of Europe. 
And Turkey, in the area, is the only stable ally from Korea to the Gulf 
crisis.
    We are--look at where we are stationed. North of us is the Soviet 
Union, having disintegrated. The new countries that have emerged have 
their own problems. East to us is Middle East. We are very friendly 
towards Israel--and I was the first Prime Minister to go to Israel--and 
friendly to the Arab world at the same time. And we have good relations 
with the Caspian Sea--new nations that have emerged, such as Azerbaijan 
and Armenia and----

Cyprus

    Q. How about Greece? Cyprus?
    Prime Minister Ciller. Oh, yes. The whole problem--that's why the 
Customs Union is so important because once--if and when Turkey is 
accepted as a full member into the European Union, as Greece is and as 
Cyprus will, together with the Turkish and

[[Page 661]]

the Greek side, the problem will be resolved in a very comprehensive way 
because then we won't have anything to fight about, such as migration or 
migration of labor or some of the basic problems that had continued for 
almost centuries now as far as I'm concerned.

The President's News Conference

    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. I thought it was good--the press conference. There 
were a lot of questions. There were a broad range of questions. They 
were interesting questions, and I gave straightforward answers, and they 
were brief. So I thought it was good.
    Q. Mr. President, one thing you didn't get to answer last night is 
that Speaker Gingrich has threatened to put all sorts of legislation 
that you oppose onto the debt ceiling bill and in effect threaten you to 
veto the bill and shut the Government down. Would you do that if there 
was legislation on there you didn't like?
    The President. No President of the United States can ever be, in 
effect, blackmailed by that sort of thing. I'm going to do what I think 
is right for the people of this country. And again--I will say again 
what I said last night, the only thing that's relevant to the American 
people in this whole process is what we do here to affect their lives, 
and their future, and their children's future.
    I have demonstrated my commitment to working through this process. 
We've already signed two good bills. We're working on this line-item 
veto together. We can do a lot of work. We can have a lot of good 
ceremonies out there in the Rose Garden, or we can have the kind of 
conflict that could arise unless there is a real attempt to work these 
things out.
    And I have been very, very clear and forthright about my position 
about these things all along and will continue to be. But a strategy to 
sort of put me in a box would be an error because I will still exercise 
the power of the Presidency in the interest of the American people.

[At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group 
entered.]

    The President. Nice to see you all.

Turkish Operations in Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, your administration has certainly shown a certain 
degree of understanding of Turkey's incursion in Northern Iraq. How 
willing are you to cooperate in possible secret arrangements for--
[inaudible]--incursion in this region?
    The President. Well, we're going to discuss that in our meetings. 
And I don't think I should say anything about it until we have meetings. 
But you know, the United States has had a strong relationship with 
Turkey. And I think it's very important that we continue that 
relationship into the future. And in order to do it, we're going to have 
to understand each other's position, each other's problems, each other's 
potential to work together. And I've tried to do that, and I've had a 
good relationship with the Prime Minister. She has been very forceful in 
coming to the United States and stating the interest of the Turkish 
people. And this is one of many things that we will discuss. But I look 
forward to continuing to make progress on all these issues.

Turkey

    Q. Will human rights and democratization be on the agenda?
    The President. Sure. And the Prime Minister's talked about 
democratization. And I think--you know, for the Europeans, as you move 
toward the Customs Union and other things, these issues are quite 
important. And they're very important to the United States. But I have 
tried to also view them in the context of the imperative to fight 
terrorism and to promote human rights. And I think you have to do both. 
Preserving a democracy in which people have human freedom is a delicate 
operation. And it requires not only a lot of sensitivity and 
understanding, it requires a lot of discipline and respect for other 
people's rights as well. And the biggest threat to human rights all over 
the world today, after the--in the aftermath of the cold war when people 
now know that dictatorial political systems don't work, that 
totalitarian systems don't work, the biggest threat to human rights is 
the reaction caused by terrorism everywhere. And that is something we 
have to be sensitive to, whether it's a car bomb blowing up in the 
Middle East or a religious fa- 

[[Page 662]]

natic taking a vial of sarin into the subway in Japan. All these things 
threaten the fabric of human rights. So we have to continue to push 
governments all over the world to be more open to human rights and 
combat terrorism at the same time.
    Q. Do you have any solution about--[inaudible]--administration?
    The President. We're going to talk about it today. You know, the 
United States has expressed an understanding of what Turkey did, along 
with the hope that civilian casualties could be strictly limited, and 
that the operation would be limited in time and scope. But we're going 
to talk about it. The Prime Minister has probably got some good ideas, 
and we'll discuss it.

Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of this 
exchange.