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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ed Huang who wrote (14262)	3/1/2003 10:51:03 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 25898

"I need to check my dictionary what "fixated" mean. " GOOD IDEA, Ed. Look it up in the "F" section.

To: Ed Huang who wrote (14262)	3/1/2003 10:51:45 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 25898

"I need to check my dictionary what "fixated" means. " GOOD IDEA, Ed. Look it up in the "F" section.

To: Ed Huang who wrote (14262)	3/1/2003 10:59:19 AM
From: Ed Huang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

Turkey to vote on US troops Last Updated: Saturday, 1 March, 2003, 14:03 GMT US troops are waiting on ships off Turkey's southern coast Turkey's parliament has begun debating the government's proposal to allow US troops to use its bases in a possible war with neighbouring Iraq. Saturday's expected vote comes amid mounting pressure from Washington, which has ships laden with tanks anchored off the Turkish shore and has said it cannot revise the terms of a compensatory multi-billion-dollar aid package much further. As the deputies met behind closed doors in the capital, Ankara, protesters held the biggest Turkish anti-war rally to date just two kilometres (1.2 miles) away. However, the BBC's correspondent in Ankara, Johnny Dymond, reports that, despite the demonstration and the popular feeling it represents, the US is likely to get what it wants. We are going to be making a very important decision on a very important issue by taking great responsibility Speaker Bulent Arinc America urgently wants to deploy 62,000 troops in Turkey as part of its military plans and on Friday State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made it clear the US was growing impatient. "We've substantially completed our negotiations with the Turkish Government over the economic, political and military documents that can outline US-Turkey co-operation with respect to Iraq," he said. "It's now up to Prime Minister [Abdullah] Gul and his cabinet to complete the Turkish political process." Anti-war feeling The governing Justice and Development Party has a comfortable majority of seats in the house but party leaders postponed the vote on Thursday amid signs that the government was having a tough time persuading deputies to support the motion. The party's deputy chairman, Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, said, nonetheless, that he expected "close to no" dissent within party ranks on Saturday. As the debate opened, Speaker Bulent Arinc stressed the gravity of the occasion. Tough balancing act "We are here for an historic session," he said. "We are going to be making a very important decision on a very important issue by taking great responsibility." But opinion polls show that 80% of Turks are opposed to the war and tens of thousands of protesters, from academics to family parties, turned out in central Ankara. They chanted "No War" and "We don't want to be America's soldiers". It was, our correspondent says, a last-ditch effort to halt what looks like the inevitable, but Turkey needs the economic and political package that it has spent weeks negotiating with the US. Turkey, the only Muslim state in Nato, is also afraid of alienating a key ally. Kurdish fears The military deal agreed by Washington and Ankara is believed to cover both the practicalities of how US troops will operate within Turkey - including which country's laws they are subject to - and the much more sensitive issue of how the Turkish and US militaries may co-operate in Iraq. The US is thought to have offered Turkey up to $30bn in grants and loan guarantees in return. Turkey has also made clear that it will send a large force into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq should war come. Reports suggest that tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers might be given a military role by the US in securing the area. Turkey fears that events in northern Iraq could have a knock-on effect on its own Kurdish areas. news.bbc.co.uk