Turkey: Troops Would Ensure Stability in N.Iraq
Sun March 23, 2003 05:44 PM ET
By Steve Bryant
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday Ankara's plans to send more troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq would provide stability there, apparently brushing aside U.S. and other Western calls to stay out.
Erdogan said Turkish troops would set up a border buffer zone to help any refugees from the U.S.-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and "prevent various provocations against our security" -- a likely reference to Kurdish militia groups and guerrillas.
"The heroic Turkish Armed Forces, the guarantor of peace at all places and at all times, will once again extend their hand to those in need of help," Erdogan said in a television address.
"The presence of Turkish soldiers in the region will be an element of security and stability for Turkey and the region," he said, speaking on the eve of a visit by U.S. envoy Zalmay Zhalilzad to discuss northern Iraq.
Erdogan suggested Turkey and the United States had reached agreement on the deployment, but a U.S. official said this was not so.
The United States has signaled it does not want Turkey to upset its military campaign to oust Saddam by triggering any fighting with Kurdish groups Ankara suspects of ambitions to establish an independent Kurdish state.
Current European Union president Greece on Sunday became the latest Western voice to urge Turkey to stay out of northern Iraq to "prevent the crisis in the region from deepening."
Turkey is concerned a Kurdish state would reignite armed Kurdish separatism in southeastern Turkey that cost 30,000 lives in the 1980s and 1990s. Iraqi Kurdish groups fear Turkey might move to crush the autonomy they have enjoyed since Baghdad lost control of the area after the 1991 Gulf War.
UNEASY SITUATION
Small numbers of Turkish troops have been in northern Iraq since the 1990s, operating against rebel Turkish Kurds who have retreated there. The troops have co-existed uneasily with the Iraqi Kurdish groups governing the area.
On Saturday, Turkey denied media reports it had sent more than 1,500 troops into northern Iraq to prepare the way for a bigger deployment.
Kurdish groups in northern Iraq oppose a Turkish incursion and some threaten to resist with force.
The issue has further complicated Ankara's relations with the United States after the Turkish parliament refused to allow Washington to send some 62,000 troops through Turkey to open a "northern front" against Iraq.
Washington fears any fighting between Turkish troops and Kurdish groups could seriously disrupt the U.S. military campaign to topple Saddam and damage plans to pull a fragmented country together.
Germany led NATO voices at the weekend threatening action, saying it would withdraw its crews from the alliance's AWACS surveillance planes patrolling the airspace over Turkey if Ankara became a belligerent force in northern Iraq.
NATO deployed the AWACS as part of a defensive shield for alliance member Turkey to guard against attack from Iraq.
The United States military began flying over Turkish territory at the weekend for operations in Iraq after winning approval from Turkey's parliament despite the troop setback.
A suspected missile fell from a plane near a village in Urfa province in eastern Turkey, some 180 miles from the Iraqi border on Sunday, a local governor told Reuters. No one was injured.
There was no confirmation that the suspected missile came from a U.S. aircraft.
reuters.com |
