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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 2MAR$ who wrote (4870)	10/14/2001 12:56:37 AM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 281500

Iraq factor leaves Turkey cold By Nadire Mater ISTANBUL - Turkey's pledges for full support for America's war on terrorism assume a "flesh and bone" dimension as the government prepares to send special troops to fight in Afghanistan. Parliament this week approved a bill "to deploy troops in other countries and host foreign troops in Turkey". "It is natural for Turkey to support the United States, which has always helped Turkey in its war against terrorism. The operation launched by the United States is in the interests of all humanity. Turkey should contribute to the operation as much as possible," said Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in a note to parliament. A team of 50 high-ranking Turkish officers, headed by a three-star general, have travelled to the US to discuss the integration of Turkish troops into the allied command, and control, chain. The Turkish government plans to deploy 300 soldiers from the "special warfare unit", which has been fighting Kurdish insurgents for 15 years, in Afghanistan to operate under the allied command as soon as the expected land operations begin. The government's involvement in Afghanistan has broadened after talks with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who visited Ankara on the eve of the US retaliatory attacks on Afghanistan that began on Sunday. "Turkey has once again become a frontline country in the Western alliance," said Foreign Minister Ismail Cem after an emergency weekend meeting with Ecevit following Rumsfeld's visit. Robert Pearson, the US ambassador to Ankara, urged Turkey to allow the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air base in the southern city of Incyrlik to become a vanguard base for the allied air strikes. Turkey is NATO's only Muslim member. But Ankara is worried that the US may extend its war to other countries. In a letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, the US said. "the operation might target other countries and other organizations" than Afghanistan and the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, implying Iraq. Ankara is concerned that if Saddam Hussein's regime collapses, under US military pressure, a Kurdish state may emerge in northern Iraq and threaten Turkey. Ankara has denied the right of self-determination to its Kurdish population, which rebels have been fighting for for 15 years. "We are very sensitive on this matter and our allies are aware of our sensitivity. A man who has burned his mouth with hot milk blows on his yogurt," State Minister Sukru Sina Gurel, employing an Turkish proverb, told NTV Television. And deputy premier Mesut Yilmaz commented, "If this war overflows from Afghanistan, it threatens to put a fire to the whole region. If this occurs, Turkey could inescapably be dragged into this firestorm." Ankara fears that if Iraq is targeted, tens of thousands of refugees might seek safety in Turkey, as they did during the Gulf War of 1991. Anti-Iraqi sanctions have not helped a Turkish economy suffering its biggest crisis in over 50 years. Iraq is on a list of countries that the US believes sponsor terrorism. A decade after the Gulf War, US and British warplanes still enforce a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, regularly exchanging fire with Iraqi forces. Like other Muslim countries, some of the Turkish public are against Ankara's support for the United States. "The public is very much against Turkey's involvement in the America's war," says Filiz Karakus, a women's rights activist in Istanbul. "Our weekend protest demonstration in Istanbul was forcibly stopped by riot police. And this happens when parliament amends the constitution for broader civil rights." Karakus and 35 other women were detained on Sunday during a protest rally against US attacks in Afghanistan. An opinion poll by the research firm Strateji-Mori shows that 80 percent of those interviewed oppose Turkey's troop deployment in Afghanistan. A similar poll in September, conducted in the aftermath of the attacks in the United States on September 11, by A&G Research Company, showed that 74.3 percent of those interviewed considered that the US's declaration of war and Turkish involvement in it as wrong. Guneri Civaoglu of the Milliyet newspaper says. "Turkey's special warfare units are already in Uzbekistan training Uzbek soldiers. Turkey has been supporting Uzbek military chief [General Rashid ] Dostum and providing military support to the Northern Alliance [fighting the Taliban]." "There is nothing new in Turkey's military involvement in Afghanistan," says Civaoglu, warning against extending the war to Iraq, Syria and Yemen. "There should be a reasonable price if Turkey will be involved in a repetition of the Gulf War," he says. Turkey joined the alliance against Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War, but lost one of its biggest foreign trade partners, Iraq, under UN sanctions. Turkey's losses from the Gulf War are estimated at US$40 billion, according to official reports, and it feels that it has not received the compensation it merits. Turkey is seeking billions of dollars in new loans from the International Monetary Fund to help finance debt due in 2002. Its importance to Washington as a strategic partner in the Muslim world clearly improves its case.