Turkey, still thumbs down on US troops, hardens position on troop deployment
By PHILIP P. PAN
Washington Post
HoustonChronicle.com -- houstonchronicle.com | Section: World
March 12, 2003, 9:11PM
ANKARA, Turkey -- Hardening their position, Turkey's leaders insist they need further assurances about Iraq's postwar future before they allow U.S. troops to deploy along the border for an attack. In a new complication, they also refuse to let the Pentagon use Turkish airspace without approval from parliament.
Despite the acceleration of U.S. military preparations elsewhere, Turkey's leaders appear to be in no hurry to schedule a new vote in parliament on the U.S deployment or use of airspace. They say they are confident the United States will wait because an invasion of Iraq without Turkey's help would be riskier, take longer and result in more casualties.
But U.S. officials say the Turkish government has misjudged the Bush administration's determination to move quickly against Iraq and are increasingly pessimistic about Turkey's participation. If Turkey does not offer its full cooperation before President Bush orders an attack, they warned, it risks losing the billions of dollars in aid that the United States has offered and damaging relations with a key ally.
"There's a concern that their measurements of Washington's thinking are not accurate," said a diplomat in Ankara, the capital. "The hope is that Turkey joins the coalition, but time is slipping. The world is moving, and if the world moves to the next stage while Turkey is still waiting, that means Turkey is out."
The differences between the United States and Turkey were evident Monday night during a telephone call between Bush and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party, who is preparing to become prime minister. People familiar with the conversation said Bush asked Erdogan about the airspace request but did not receive a commitment. Erdogan also did not succeed in winning assurances about Iraq's Turkmen population and Turkey's role in shaping a postwar Iraq, a Turkish official said.
"There wasn't really any progress," he said.
Turkey's reluctance to grant the United States permission to use its airspace is particularly problematic for the Pentagon, which had counted on using scores of warplanes based at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey and on aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean to hit Iraqi targets. Without the use of Turkish airspace, Pentagon officials would have to consider using the more provocative route of flying over Israel and Jordan.
In addition, U.S. military planners had hoped to fly troops directly into northern Iraq as a back-up plan if Turkey refused to let the Army's 4th Infantry Division cross on land to the Iraqi border. Dozens of U.S. ships carrying the division's tanks and heavy equipment have been waiting in Turkish waters for permission to begin unloading.
Despite Erdogan's endorsement, the Turkish parliament rejected the U.S. deployment by three votes March 1. U.S. officials had hoped that Erdogan would quickly seek another vote, especially after his election to parliament Sunday cleared the way for him take over as prime minister.
But Erdogan is moving cautiously, apparently worried about the political damage he suffered in the last vote on the U.S. request, when more than a quarter of his party's members of parliament defied the party line. The Turkish president has asked Erdogan to form a new government, but he did not submit a cabinet to the president for approval Wednesday as analysts had expected.
U.S. officials say they have tried many times to address Turkey's concerns, which focus on the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq. Turkey fears a Kurdish state there could inspire similar demands for autonomy among its own Kurdish population and cause renewed fighting between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish military, which plagued the nation for much of the past two decades.
U.S. officials have expressed frustration with Turkey's requests for further assurances, saying they have repeatedly stated U.S. opposition to a Kurdish state and that there is almost complete agreement on the language of a memorandum of understanding between the two nations about the future of Iraq |
