- (AFP) -- Turkey opened its airspace to US warplanes bound
for Iraq after 24 hours of tense gamesmanship during which it sought to
win approval for its own military intervention in northern Iraq.
-
- "It has been determined that it is in Turkey's interests
to open Turkish airspace," Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters
after a meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, army chief Hilmi
Ozkok and senior officials on the Iraq war.
-
- The decision is likely to please Washington, where officials
earlier accused the Ankara government and the Turkish military of "obstructionism"
by keeping its airspace closed, despite a vote by parliament to open it
Thursday.
-
- Access to air corridors over Turkey is vital to US plans
to open a second front against Iraq, after the Turkish parliament earlier
this month rejected a US request to deploy 62,000 soldiers here.
-
- Washington is now planning to airlift troops over Turkish
territory into Iraq to launch an invasion from the north in addition to
the ongoing assault from the south.
-
- In a much-awaited vote, the parliament Thursday approved
both the use of Turkish airspace by "foreign air force elements"
and the dispatch to northern Iraq of Turkish troops to guard against a
possible Kurdish independence bid.
-
- But subsequent talks between Ankara and Washington on
implementing both decisions lasted through much of the night and failed
to produce a deal.
-
- The deadlock, Turkish government sources said, emerged
because of Washington's firm opposition to Turkish plans to send its troops
into northern Iraq.
-
- Gonul told reporters Friday evening there was still no
deal on the possible dispatch of Turkish troops to northern Iraq, though
"talks are continuing on this issue."
-
- A source close to the Turkish government earlier said
that Ankara had been seeking to secure simultaneous deals on the dispatch
of Turkish troops and the opening of its airspace.
-
- "Just as it is important for the United States to
use Turkish airspace, it is important for us to send soldiers to northern
Iraq... We are not going there to fight but to defend ourselves,"
the source told AFP.
-
- Washington has frequently warned Turkey against unilateral
military action in northern Iraq, saying any Turkish foray into the region
should be under the command of the US-led coalition forces.
-
- In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell underlined
US desire not to see Turkish soldiers pour into the region.
-
- "At the moment we don't see a need for any Turkish
incursions into northern Iraq," he said, adding that Washington did
not believe overflights and Turkey's presence in the Kurd areas should
be linked.
-
- "Our position is that these two items should be
separable," Powell said.
-
- But Turkey believes its own security is closely linked
to northern Iraq, which has been run by local Kurds since the 1991 Gulf
War when it was wrenched from Baghdad's hands.
-
- "Any development in Iraq is important with respect
to Turkey's security. Our security needs to be guaranteed. This is our
priority demand from the United States," Justice Minister Cemil Cicek
told the Anatolia news agency.
-
- Turkey fears northern Iraqi Kurds might declare independence
once Saddam Hussein is ousted.
-
- Ankara is afraid that such a state could re-ignite an
insurgency among its own sizeable Kurdish community in the southeast which
is only just recovering from a 15-year bloody rebellion for self-rule.
-
- Iraqi Kurds -- who have seen Turkish soldiers foray into
the area for the past two decades -- have threatened to fight the Turkish
army.
-
- Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected
by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence
you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any
way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the
prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
|
