A U.S. president candidate expressed thought on Wednesday that the U.S. intervention in Iraq had escalated PKK militancy.

Barack Obama, the president candidate of the Democratic Party, said that the Bush administration's misguided and mismanaged intervention in Iraq had helped revive the militant threat posed to Turkey by the PKK.

Obama referred to relations with Turkey under the "restoring the strategic partnership with Turkey" chapter of his election statement regarding his internal, external and economic policies. The statement was posted on Obama's web-page.

In the chapter, Barack Obama and Joe Biden (the vice president candidate) expressed belief that a close relationship with a stable, democratic, Western-oriented Republic of Turkey was an important U.S. national interest.

"That relationship has been deeply strained in recent years, most importantly by the Bush administration's misguided and mismanaged intervention in Iraq, which has helped revive the militanst threat posed to Turkey by PKK," Obama said.

Obama said that the result was that this strategically important NATO ally, the most advanced democracy in the Muslim world, was turning against the West? in recent polls only 12 percent of Turks had a favorable opinion of the United States.

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will lead a diplomatic effort to bring together Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish leaders and negotiate a comprehensive agreement that deals with the PKK threat, guarantees Turkey's territorial integrity, and facilitates badly needed Turkish investment in and trade with the Kurds of northern Iraq," Obama also said in the chapter.

Obama said that Joe Biden and he would support the promotion of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression in Turkey and support its efforts to join the European Union (EU).

On Cyprus problem, Obama and Biden said that they would show U.S. leadership in seeking to negotiate a political settlement on Cyprus.

They also said that a settlement would help remove a major obstacle to Turkish membership in the EU.

In the statement, Obama and Biden expressed strong belief that Cyprus should remain a single country in which each of the two communities on the island was able to exercise substantial political authority in its own geographical zone.

The U.S. presidential election is scheduled for November 4, 2008. Obama will compete with John McCain, the candidate of the Republican Party, to become the new president of the United States.

AA