U.S. Drops Its Bid to Base Troops in Turkey

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 15, 2003 | Richard Boudreaux and John Hendren

[AntiGuv]

ANKARA, Turkey -- The Bush administration told Turkish leaders Friday that it had all but given up on their country as a base from which to assault Iraq, ending months of intense lobbying for the deployment of tens of thousands of American troops to a northern front against Saddam Hussein, a senior U.S. official said.

Instead, the official said, the administration is now trying to dissuade Turkey from plans to send its own army into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, warning that such an incursion could lead to "a war within a war" and further damage Turkey's relations with the United States.

The shift in the administration's position came nearly two weeks after Turkey's parliament refused to authorize a deployment of 62,000 American troops and after its top political leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, balked at a backup proposal to open Turkish airspace to U.S. missiles and warplanes for a bombing campaign in Iraq.

[ambrose]

Turkey is next.

[winner3000]

Please don't make comments like this. Thank you.

[Always A Marine]

Another ally who has it's hand out when they should be hand in hand with the US.

Turkey's situation is a bit more complex, I believe. What is at stake for Turkey is the potential birth of a hostile new nation -- Kurdistan -- on its southeastern border. Worse, a Kurdistan would share ethnic ties to destabilizing Kurd populations in Turkish and Iranian border regions, thereby guaranteeing a very difficult and bloody future.

Ankara doesn't want to allow a large U.S. invasion of northern Iraq to be launched from Turkey because it doesn't want the United States to dictate its future vis-a-vis the Kurds. In other words, Ankara wants to make sure the Turkish Army reaches nothern Iraq in strength before the U.S. Army does. While I don't like what Ankara is doing, I cannot fault Turkey for seeking its own self-interest in the reshaping of its own troubled border.

[Glenn]

What is this "above what we normally give them" CR@P ???

It's is unrealistic to be thinking in terms of retribution. It would only lead to isolation which is the one thing we can ill-afford at the moment.

[Always A Marine]

Turkey has a right to do this--it is their country after all, and I can understand the internal pressures they face. However, if my supposed friend stabs me in the back, I am not going to buy lunch for him any time soon.

A strong argument can be made that Ankara feared that Washington might stab it in the back -- literally -- by facilitating the establishment of an independent Kurdistan on its southeastern border. The Kurdish issue goes to the heart of Turkey's internal and external security, so I really don't blame them for this decision.

[Consort]

We'll get to Nothern Iraq, just a few days later then planned.

We may want to get there before the war to keep the Turks out of Iraq and keep the Turks and Kurds away from each other. A Turk/Kurd blood bath will be blamed on the US. A Turk annex of Iraq territory/oil will also be blamed on the US.

[a_Turk]

>> While I don't like what Ankara is doing, I cannot fault Turkey for seeking its own self-interest in the reshaping of its own troubled border.

Spoken like a true upright clear thinking soldier.

Partnering with you would have been so good.. We need a fresh load of veterans who would have fought shoulder to shoulder together with you.

Here's a Kurdish veteran of the Turkish Armed Forces from the Korean war. Too bad that in another 10 years there'll be none left to tell their stories..

[a_Turk]

>> We may want to get there before the war to keep the Turks out of Iraq and keep the Turks and Kurds away from each other.

You don't know what you're talking about. We're already in there by the tens of thousands with hundreds of tanks and support equipment, even mobile phone relay stations have been set up by Turk Telecom to let our GIs communicate with their families, plus we've got an airbase there which we refurbished a year ago..

Your objective, BTW, is not to keep this or that group away from one another. It is to topple Saddam. Once that's done, there'll be new assessments of practicality. By then, I venture to guess, we'll have captured Osman Ocalan and his brainwashed suicide bombing PKK murderers.

If tracking down and killing the terror threat is not part and parcel of this war on terror, then what is?

[CurlyDave]

A strong argument can be made that Ankara feared that Washington might stab it in the back -- literally -- by facilitating the establishment of an independent Kurdistan on its southeastern border.

Turkey may well have feared this potential. Everything I have seen claimed that in return for the land passage the US was offering:

1. $ Aid, and

2. A promise not to establish an independent Kurdistan, and not to leave heavy weapons with the Kurds.

There was much gnashing of teeth that we were "abandoning" the Kurds.

Now it looks like the Turks will probably stage their own invasion of Iraq while the US comes in from the south.

What happens afterward when the US politely asks Turkey to leave?

Seems to me that the Kurds will willingly provide the manpower to help the Turks back to their own country if the US just provides them the means to push things along. (If they can ever quit fighting among themselves over who is going to be in control.)

Suddenly Turkey has managed to generate its own worst nightmare, by refusing passage to the US.

[Consort]

You don't know what you're talking about.

We'll see.

[Cicero]

I disagree. Turkey wants to prevent the Kurds who live within its own borders from breaking away, and therefore from time to time it has gone into Northern Iraq to discourage the Iraqi Kurds from helping their brothers across the border. The U.S. has never objected to that. And the U.S. had no interest in destabilizing Turkey by letting the Kurds get all roiled up.

That was then. This is now. By acting as they have, Turkey has badly undercut American good will, and increased the likelihood that we will favor the Kurds. We would be fools to let the Turks grab the northern oil fields. We will simply take them from a different direction, and the Turks will be faced with a fait accompli. They might have larger forces in the area than we do, but I trust they are not stupid enough to attack the U.S. forces who are already in Northern Iraq. They've made one bad mistake. That would be a far worse mistake. If Turkey committed an act of war against us, that would likely provoke the U.S. to set up a Kurdish state and would also provoke the U.S. to shove Turkey out of Cyprus.

Turkish fears of a Kurdish revolt are well founded, but the path they have taken is already extremely foolish. If they behave reasonably now, we would have no reason to dismember Turkey. If they don't, all bets are off.

[Just mythoughts]

All this may be true, however, Turkey may well get the very thing that they are trying to prevent, especially if the Kurds and some of our own get hurt because of this.

These things have a way of coming back, "best laid plans..."

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Turkey did not choose wisely.

Events like this are remembered for a long time.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Give 1/3 of Iraq to the Kurds.

Seems reasonable to me.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

The Kurdish issue goes to the heart of Turkey's internal and external security, so I really don't blame them for this decision.

The Kurds are there. That is reality. When Saddam's government falls, what does it matter whether the Kurds obtain soveriegn rights or are governed by a distant, disconnected government in Baghdad? Turkey needs to get over 1925 already. As an example, the European nations that fought against each other are getting along well enough.

PS: I do in fact respect Turkey's decision, and the consequences that accompany it. In my opinion, France's treachery in undermining our self defense interests is NOT forgivable.

[MEG33]

I simply repeat my last post to you.WE're worried about loss of life and extension of hostile action. (and I know you are ,too.)

[swarthyguy]

There, America, we cut off our nose to spite our face.

[swarthyguy]

Turkey = Kurdey

[WOSG]

Kurdistan is a bogeyman to the Turks, but there will not be an independent Kurdistan and Kurds and others know this. PUK spoeksamn said as much on NPR last week, pointing out that it is reality since WWI that kurdistan is broken between 4 countries (Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria) and nobody expects all 4 to let something get carved out of their own countries. So they really only seek some cultural autonomy and rights in a federated Iraq, and rights as minorities in the other countries. He said they want their own country, but what is realistic? only have rights within the existing boraders.

The question you have to ask is: Why does this threaten Turkey and if it does are their moves to stop greater autonomy legimitate?

Turkey should not pit themselves against the kurds of Northern Iraq, when their actions only make more friction likely. They should keep their troops out of northern Iraq entirely. No danger will come to Turkey if they stay on their own borders.

[scouse]

about some kind of self-government. Turkey has thus far not succeeded in its policy towards the PKK. The government in Ankara still faces significant opposition from the Kurdish guerrillas. For Turkey to achieve peace, suppression and use of force cannot be the only responses to the Kurds and their struggle. Sooner or later the Kurds will have to be met with political means in a democratic and pluralist framework like that already existing in other parts of Turkey. The other countries in the region are paying close attention to Turkey, though, in fear of pan-Turkish thrusts. Should Turkey try to gain influence over northern Iraq and the future of the Kurds in general, the Kurdish area in Iraq will be endangered. In such a case, Iraq is likely to develop a definite anti-Turkish policy to protect its own position in this region. The political ambitions of the Kurds are actually a threat against pan-Arab ideas. As many people see it, the Turks intend to use the Kurdish controversy to expand their power at the expense of the Arab countries in a new and dangerous phase of ‘neo-Ottomanism’. Turkey may at least be forced to introduce some kind of federal system which would allow the Kurds broad cultural autonomy.

" http://www.prio.no/html/osce-kurds.asp"