Turkish Leaders Sending Military Observers to Kirkuk
By FRANK BRUNI
URGUP, Turkey, April 10 — Turkish leaders said today that they were sending military observers to monitor Kurdish forces in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, while American officials worked to discourage Turkey from any steps more provocative than that.
On a day of potentially critical developments for the stability of northern Iraq, Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, said that he had sought fresh assurances from Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that coalition forces would control Kirkuk.
"We have reminded them of their guarantee," Mr. Gul pointedly told reporters, referring to American vows that the oil-rich northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk would not be controlled by Iraqi Kurds, as seemed to be the case today.
Mr. Gul added that Mr. Powell, who placed a telephone call to him, pledged to send American forces into Kirkuk within hours. Mr. Gul said that Turkish leaders felt "no reason for any concerns" about the solidness of that promise.
But in other comments throughout a tense day in Turkey, Mr. Gul and Turkish leaders also made clear that Turkey would be willing to send its own troops into northern Iraq if it felt that such an action was vital to Turkish interests.
Government officials had previously defined those interests to include the prevention of any autonomous Kurdish state in the region.
Under the nightmare scenario that haunts many Turkish leaders, Kurdish control of Kirkuk and its potential wealth would be the first step in the rise of such a state, which could in turn rekindle separatist demands among ethnic Kurds in southeastern Turkey.
American officials repeatedly assured Turkish leaders that the war in Iraq would not yield any development of the kind. But those officials also acknowledged that Turkish skepticism persisted and that Turkish leaders remained ready to dispatch troops if they sensed that their fears were being realized.
Almost as soon as Kurdish fighters took control of Kirkuk, American officials sought to allay Turkish anxieties and even, Mr. Gul said, agreed to the presence of Turkish military observers in Kirkuk.
American officials worry that if Turkey sends troops into northern Iraq, it will set off violent clashes between Turkish soldiers and Iraqi Kurds, and that hard-won military gains elsewhere in Iraq will be overshadowed by a war within a war.
Late today, Western diplomats here said that there was not yet any sign that Turkish troops were ready to move, and that the mood among Turkish government officials was one of profound wariness and patient calm.
"Everybody's watching, and they've got lots of good reasons to be very alert," one Western diplomat said.
But, the diplomat said, "I think when Colin Powell says the troops are on the way, they take him seriously."
"Kirkuk just went a little faster than everybody expected, and there was suddenly a vacuum, and whoever was in the neighborhood moved in, but everybody knows the rules," the diplomat added.
That was a reference to both a Kurdish pledge to put Kurdish forces under coalition command and Turkish statements that the presence of Kurdish forces in Kirkuk would not in and of itself be a provocation, provided that those forces were not taking independent control.
Turkish government officials and lawmakers said tonight that Turkey was still evaluating events in Kirkuk.
"Of course we're worried," said Mevlut Cavusoglu, a member of the Turkish Parliament and one of the foreign policy leaders within the ruling Justice and Development Party.
"We have to see what's really going on," Mr. Cavusoglu said in a telephone interview. "We are very sensitive about this issue."
American officials have spent many hours over many months trying to address that sensitivity, but those efforts have been complicated by serious strains in the alliance between the United States and Turkey.
Mr. Powell visited the Turkish capital of Ankara last week in an effort to repair the relationship and made clear that the United States did not want Turkey to send troops into Iraq.
Turkish leaders signaled an increased willingness to yield to that desire.
But today, in response to news reports and television images of Kurdish forces occupying Kirkuk, those leaders seemed newly emboldened and possibly defiant.
"We will do whatever is necessary," Mr. Gul said in a statement quoted by the Turkish state-run news agency. "Turkey's stance on this issue is clear." |
