"I spoke with the Prime Minister Erdogan and I told him we are extremely concerned about what is happening at the borders between Turkey and Iraq": José Manuel Barroso, president of the EU Commission, who is in Strasbourg to attend the plenary meeting of the EU Parliament, explains that he called Tayyp Erdogan yesterday to "collect direct information about the Kurdish issue", the abduction of servicemen and the ongoing guerrilla warfare. "Obviously Turkey is fully entitled to defend its citizens, and the EU condemns the terrorist actions of Pkk", explains the leader of the EU Executive. "This doesn’t mean we must not avoid all violence" and that the conflict might not escalate, and "that’s why I told the Prime Minister Erdogan that political and diplomatic ways should first be attempted so as not to make the situation even more dramatic". Barroso adds that the head of the Ankara Government ensured him that "Turkey will not endanger the territorial integration of Iraq. Any move would instead be targeted against terrorist groups" working at the borders of the country.
