TURKISH INTERIOR MINISTER LEAVES FOR BAHRAIN

ANKARA (A.A)  - 21.09.2010 - Turkey's interior minister flew to Bahrain on Tuesday for the seventh meeting of the interior ministers of Iraq's neighboring countries.
Ten countries will attend the meeting, which was initiated by Turkey. 
"Elections were held in Iraq in the spring, and U.S. troops have started to withdraw from the country," Interior Minister Besir Atalay told reporters before he departed from Ankara's Esenboga Airport.
Atalay said participants of the Bahrain meeting would discuss security issues and normalization process in Iraq.
"As the neighboring countries, we will discuss our possible contributions to Iraq, and participation of Turkey, as the country that has launched the initiative, is of key importance," he said.
Atalay said all regional countries were aware that Turkey was the country that made the highest contributions to Iraq.
On terrorism, Atalay said the main topic of the meeting was Iraq's security, however he would focus on terrorism structures in Iraq, particularly the presence of the terrorist organization PKK in north of Iraq.
Atalay said he would also debate terrorism with his Iranian and Syrian counterparts.
The previous meeting took place in Egypt in October 2009.