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US stuck without a Turkish
crutch
By Hilmi Toros
ISTANBUL - Turkey's decision not to send troops
to Iraq has brought relief to many Iraqis and Turks, but
comes as a setback to an increasingly beleaguered United
States.
Turkey acted last week after the US
acknowledged that Turkish troops would run into an
unfriendly reception, if not resistance. The Turkish
government had obtained parliamentary authorization
under intense US insistence earlier to dispatch as many
as 10,000 troops. That was to be the first major force
from a Muslim nation.
The US had expected that
forces from its North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) ally would be readily accepted in Iraq, and would
lessen the burden of the war on its soldiers. They were
seen also as opening the way for troops from other
Muslim nations.
The parliamentary approval is
valid for one year and Turkey could still send troops in
the next 11 months. But few expect the anti-Turkish
sentiment in Iraq to change.
"We were never
eager [to send troops]," Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul said following the decision on Friday.
Opinion polls find more than 60 percent of Turks opposed
active involvement in Iraq.
Anti-war protests
ceased in Turkey following the government announcement.
The military immediately disbanded its preparations.
The US now sees no role for Turkish troops over
the next six months. It is counting on recruitment from
within Iraq for security as it scales down its forces in
the face of body bags coming home in increasing numbers.
"It is clear that the Iraqi Governing Council
members managed to convince US chief administrator for
Iraq L Paul Bremer that only a new Iraqi security force
composed of militia members could really handle the
security situation," says Ilnur Cevik, editor of the
English-language Turkish Daily News.
But banking
on security from Iraqi forces, particularly Kurds in the
north and Shi'ites in the south raises prospects of a
"warlord" culture, says Cevik. "The Americans should be
aware that once they invaded Iraq, they let the cat out
of the bag."
Turkey's decision displayed
publicly that the US underestimated Iraqi opposition to
troops from Turkey. This includes opposition from within
the interim government installed by the US. Both Arabs
and Kurds see Turkey as an interested party. The Ottoman
empire that preceded modern day Turkey once ruled Iraq,
and Turkey still has keen interest in developments in
the Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq, including the
Kirkuk and Mosul oilfields it once owned.
Turkey
admits to being an interested party and justified its
willingness to send troops on the ground that it was in
its national interest to maintain a unified Iraq. It
fears that a breakup of Iraq could lead to an
independent Kurdistan in the north, and set off similar
aspirations among its own Kurds, who make up 20 percent
of its 70 million population.
A guerrilla war
waged by Turkish Kurds against the government cost more
than 30,000 lives before the military established
control in Kurd-dominated regions four years ago. Some
5,000 Turkish Kurds are still believed holed up in
mountains across the border in Iraq. Turkey deploys
1,000 special forces within Iraq.
Iraqi Kurds
are emerging as a major force as they push for a strong
Kurdish entity in a federal Iraq. They allied themselves
with the US against Saddam Hussein as Turkey refused to
join the invasion of Iraq in March, despite persistent
US demands.
Since then, Kurds have been exerting
greater authority in northern Iraq that also includes
Arabs and an ethnic Turkish minority called Turkmens.
They hold key portfolios in the interim government,
including that of the foreign minister. Kurdish leader
Jalal Talabani has recently taken over the rotating
presidency of the 24-member Iraqi Governing Council.
Iraqi Kurds voiced opposition to Turkish troops
minutes after the Turkish parliament authorized the
government to send troops to Iraq. Other Arab groups
joined in. The US was unable to sway Kurds to accept
Turkish troops, leading Turkey's ambassador to
Washington to comment that the US was favoring the
Kurds. The State Department issued an official denial.
The US has assured Turkey publicly that it will
work for the elimination of Kurdish guerrillas, but
without specifying how. The main consolation for Turkey
is that it complied with the US request. The move sought
to restore the "strategic partnership" with the US that
was shattered after its initial refusal to join the US
invasion.
(Inter Press Service)
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