Posted on 06/27/2004 7:17:29 PM PDT by Valin
ISTANBUL, June 27 — President Bush reassured Turkey on Sunday that it was once again a friend in good standing, despite its refusal to support American troops in the invasion of Iraq last year.
Meanwhile, administration officials pressed other reluctant NATO allies to commit themselves to rebuilding Iraq's security forces.
On the eve of a two-day NATO summit meeting that will be dominated by Iraq and the rifts caused by the American invasion, Mr. Bush concentrated on the theme of reconciliation and on refocusing the alliance to use its military muscle in new ways, especially in Iraq.
"We are going to work together to help make sure that NATO is configured militarily to meet the threats of the 21st century," he said before a meeting with the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
The meeting of 26 leaders will begin on Monday at a conference center in central Istanbul. Security precautions have all but shut down the main business district and cleared the normally busy Bosporus waterway of most tankers, party boats and cargo ships. Nonetheless, thousands of demonstrators protesting Mr. Bush's visit converged on the city Sunday.
At a time of widespread anti-American feeling in the Islamic world, Mr. Bush also took pains to praise Turkey for building a secular democracy that could serve as an example to other predominantly Muslim nations.
Meeting with local Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders, he also described Turkey as a country that has fostered tolerance between its Islamic majority and its minority religious groups. "They represent the very best of Turkey, which is a country that is secular in politics and strong in its faith," he said.
He ended his remarks by thanking the assembled Turkish religious figures "for being so faithful to the Almighty God."
Turkey's government and its powerful military establishment had been anxiously awaiting a resounding American endorsement after more than a year of strained relations between the two old allies.
The tensions stemmed from the Turkish Parliament's refusal to allow American troops to pass through its territory for the invasion of Iraq.
The vote was an embarrassment for the powerful Turkish military, which had been eager to take an active part in the war. It also undermined the efforts of the newly elected government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to court favor with Washington.
Relations grew even more tense after the war, when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz openly criticized the Turkish military for not making good on its promise of support and called on Turkey to apologize for the decision of its Parliament.
But in meetings with Mr. Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, President Bush was said to have declared that all was forgiven.
"These meetings today made clear that whatever the differences U.S. and Turkish governments had over Iraq, from this point forward — and both the Turkish president and the Turkish prime minister in their meetings made this clear — from this moment forward, Turkey sees its interests and the American interests in Iraq as parallel and consistent," said a senior American official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
While Turkey and the United States appeared to put their differences behind them, divisions remained between the Bush administration and its allies over Iraq.
Intense negotiations in advance of the summit meeting centered on an appeal from Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, for NATO training and technical assistance.
American officials expressed guarded confidence that NATO member nations would agree on some sort of limited commitment to help train Iraqis.
But differences persisted over how and where to provide the training, and over whether a training program could be under the aegis of NATO or merely coordinated by NATO.
"We have a lot of work to do to find out what the Iraqi needs are, specifically what they have in mind, what NATO can offer," said the senior American official who briefed reporters on background (off the record). "This is a big deal. But I believe that NATO will agree that this is an urgent mission and it's got to be carried out fast."
France and Germany, two of the strongest objectors to the war in Iraq, oppose sending in any of their personnel, even as trainers, even though Mr. Allawi had specifically asked NATO to provide such assistance inside Iraq.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was also in Istanbul for the summit meeting, supported that request.
Mr. Rumsfeld, as well as allied defense officials and American military officials here and in Iraq, acknowledged that many details about Nato's training assistance in Iraq were still unresolved.
"There are no details yet how to do it," the Danish defense minister, Soren Gade, said in an interview.
Some training of Iraqi forces has been under way for months.
Police officers are being trained in Jordan by Jordanian and foreign law enforcement officers, and Germany has been training Iraqi security agents in the United Arab Emirates.
American defense officials suggested that the NATO training could fall under the control of Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, a former commander of the 101st Airborne Division who has been newly assigned to help oversee training of the Iraqi security forces, or at least be coordinated with General Petraeus's efforts.
Simply turning out new Iraqi recruits and expecting them to perform well is insufficient, the officials said.
"These people, when they come out, have to be fit into a chain of command someplace," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
"They have to have a mentoring program so they have continuing training. It is a much more sophisticated task than simply putting somebody through school and then shoving him out of society."
Iraqi officials are considering increasing the training and improving the equipment for members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, and integrating it into the Iraqi Army, Mr. Rumsfeld said. The corps would be renamed a national guard to clarify its security role. Alliance members would help identify training needs for the new units.
"The new Iraqi government is making judgments about how it'll recast the various security forces," Mr. Rumsfeld said in an interview with reporters traveling with him. "NATO will then work with the Iraqi chain of command, and new Iraqi government, and tasks will be assigned out."
While an accord on training would be a sign that the badly frayed alliance is still capable of consensus on Iraq, it would fall far short of the Bush administration's initial hopes for NATO troops to supplement American, British and other coalition forces in Iraq.
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