| |
Turkey resigned to US
attack
By Nadire Mater
ISTANBUL - Turkish leaders are preparing
themselves for a US-led attack on Iraq that they do not
want. "US officials have already expressed to us their
determination for an attack against Iraq," Prime
Minister Bulent Ecevit said in a televised interview
this week. "They don't imply it, they openly express it.
And we are preparing both politically and militarily."
But despite preparing for a US attack on Iraq,
Ecevit has said that the Turkish government would
continue efforts to restrain Washington from doing so.
"A military operation will seriously affect our
crisis-ridden economy," Ecevit said.
Ecevit,
whose own future as premier is uncertain following a
spate of defections from his political alliance, has
been strongly opposed to a war on Iraq. His tone
changed, however, after a series of meetings with US
ambassador to Turkey, Robert Pearson.
The
government is now preparing for an attack, and it has
also set out a follow-up plan code-named "B.020" for
dealing with a post-Saddam situation in Iraq, according
to media reports citing sources in the prime minister's
office.
A report in the national daily Hurriyet
says that according to the government plan, "there is no
doubt that the emergence on our southeastern borders of
a democratic Iraq with good relations with the West is
extremely valuable for our strategic interests."
But the US move has the business community
worried. "The US is determined to intervene in Iraq,"
says Bedrettin Karaboga, chair of the Southeastern
Industrialists and Businessmen Association, following a
meeting with Pearson. "In reply to Pearson's question we
openly said that the region's economy will be adversely
affected by a US military operation," Karaboga said.
"Yet he remained silent."
Mike Parris, former US
ambassador to Turkey, warned a senate foreign relations
committee session on Iraq on Wednesday about Turk
resistance to an attack on Iraq. "Turks hate the idea of
overthrowing Saddam," Parris is reported to have told
the panel.
"Turkey is worried that if everything
does not get along as planned, the US will leave Turkey
face to face with a hostile or chaotic neighbor," he
said. "Yet Ankara will not have the luxury of sitting
with arms folded should Washington go after Saddam," he
said. "Ankara, for her own interests, will need to take
part in the planning and implementation of US plans."
After announcing elections for November 3 in a
special session on Wednesday, the Turkish parliament
left Iraq out of its agenda and debated moves instead to
bring Turkish laws in line with European Union (EU)
guidelines as a step towards joining the EU. But any
plans for support to the US will need parliamentary
approval, says Turgut Tarhanali of Bilgi University in
Istanbul. "The Turkish parliament should make a decision
in that direction," he says. "Without such a decision
the government will be faced with difficulties."
Turkey fears the Kurdish fallout of a US attack
as the Turkish plan on support to the US is reported to
rule out any "declaration of an independent Kurdish
state" in a future Iraq.
Following 15 years of
war against the guerrilla group PKK (Kurdistan Workers
Party), which was struggling for an autonomous Kurdistan
in southeastern Turkey, the Turkish government wants to
block any moves for Kurdish autonomy within Iraq.
Last year the PKK changed its name to KADEK
(Kurdistan Democracy and Freedom Congress), disbanded
its armed units within Turkey and adopted a peaceful
struggle for the rights of Kurds. But according to
Turkish defense sources, about 5,000 of the former armed
guerrillas are now based in northern Iraq.
Kurdish land in the former Ottoman empire was
divided after World War 1 into Iran, Iraq, Turkey and
Syria. An estimated 15 million Kurds live in Turkey, 2
million in northern Iraq, 1.5 million in Iran and a
little less than 1 million in Syria.
"Ethnic
minorities in Iraq should be prevented from establishing
separate administrations," the reported Turkish plan
states. "Such declarations in this direction can be
cause for intervention on our part."
Turkey is
also concerned about a flow of Kurdish refugees into
Turkey from northern Iraq in the event of a US invasion.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled Iraq into Turkey
following a failed uprising against Saddam during the
Gulf War in 1991. Cold and hunger cost thousands of
lives during the exodus and after.
(Inter Press
Service)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
