By Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - A senior US diplomat will travel to Türkiye’s capital on Monday to meet with Turkish officials to “broaden and strengthen” counterterrorism cooperation, including ensuring the defeat of terrorist organizations such as the PKK, DHKP-C and Daesh/ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
The visit to Ankara by Elizabeth Richard, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, comes after the two countries agreed to relaunch the Türkiye-US Counterterrorism Consultations following a meeting last month in Washington, D.C. between Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as part of the seventh meeting of the Türkiye-US Strategic Mechanism.
Richard and her Turkish counterparts will “broaden and strengthen U.S.-Türkiye counterterrorism cooperation to thwart terrorist travel; combat terrorism-related networks engaged in organized crime; ensure the defeat of terrorist organizations such as the PKK, DHKP-C and (Daesh) ISIS in Syria and Iraq; and cooperate to counter the threat of (Daesh) ISIS and al-Qa'ida affiliates present in Africa and South and Central Asia,” the department said in a statement.
Richard will also engage Turkish officials on ways to “further combat exploitation of global finance channels by terrorist organizations,” the statement added.
In its more 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.