U.S. Department of State 
96/09/18 Statement: Visit to Turkey by AS Pelletreau  
Office of the Spokesman 
 
 
 
Press Statement by Nicholas Burns/Spokesman  
September 18, 1996  
  
  
             Visit to Turkey by Assistant Secretary Pelletreau 
 
 
 
Assistant Secretary Pelletreau arrived in Ankara with Secretary Perry on  
Monday and remained for consultations on the situation in the Middle  
East in general and the latest developments in Iraq in particular.  
 
On Iraq, Ambassador Pelletreau thanked his Turkish interlocutors for  
their excellent cooperation on our humanitarian evacuation of U.S.  
government employees and their families from northern Iraq to Guam.   
Ambassador Pelletreau and the ?Turks also discussed practical ways to  
respond to the needs of the inhabitants of northern Iraq, including the  
condition of the Turkomen community, the need for humanitarian relief  
programs in the area, and the eventual implementation of UNSC Resolution  
986.  
 
Ambassador Pelletreau took advantage of his presence in the region to  
meet with KDP leader Masud Barzani and a leader of the Iraqi Turkomen  
community.  They discussed continuing U.S. interest in contributing to  
peace and stability in the region and U.S. concerns about the  
humanitarian situation of the Kurds, Turkomen, Assyrians, and others who  
live in the region, as well as concerns about the safety of those  
affiliated with our operations there.  
 
The U.S. and its partners in the Operation Provide Comfort Coalition  
have provided humanitarian relief and deterred repression in northern  
Iraq since 1991.