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Ankara, US agree on troops
24/03/2003 08:14 - (SA)
Ankara - Ankara and Washington have reached agreement on the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a nationwide television address.
"The military arrangements that we have made in a limited belt along the border are aimed at stopping a possible influx of refugees...and prevent certain threats to our security," said Erdogan.
"The presence of Turkish soldiers in that region will be a source of security and stability for Turkey and the region," he said.
Erdogan said protecting the territorial integrity of Iraq was essential and that "Turkey and the United States have reached agreement on all questions."
Washington has warned Turkey against intervening in northern Iraq, wanting to avoid possible clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish groups in territory where United States special forces are preparing for an assault on the oil towns of Kirkuk and Mosul.
"We're making it very clear to the Turks that we expect them not to come in to northern Iraq," US President George W Bush told reporters on Sunday.
"We're in constant touch with the Turkish military as well as Turkish politicians. They know our policy.
"And they know we're working with the Kurds to make sure there's not an incident that would cause there to be an excuse to go in," he said.
Iraqi Kurds, who have not been under the control of Baghdad since the end of the 1991 Gulf war, have vowed to fight Turkish troops if they invade the territory they hold.
Ankara fears the Iraqi Kurds might declare independence if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is ousted, possibly reigniting 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.
Ankara also perceives threats to its security from local Kurds and Turkish Kurdish rebels in hiding.
Erdogan said in an interview in Newsweek magazine that Washington had agreed to Turkish troops entering a 19km zone in northern Iraq.
Although Nato-member Turkey has been one of Washington's strongest allies, the refusal by the Turkish parliament to allow the United States to use the country to deploy 62 000 troops and open a northern front in Iraq threw a spanner in US war plans.
The three-week delay in approving overflight rights for US warplanes also irritated Washington, which on Saturday finally abandoned plans to open a northern front in Iraq via Turkey and ordered the troops waiting on transport ships in the Mediterranean to the Gulf.
- AFX
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