Posted on 02/20/2003 6:39:53 PM PST by BlackJack
‘Turkey demands control of Iraq from US’
By Owen Matthews, Sami Kohen and John Barry
ANKARA: Turkey is raising its price for allowing US forces to invade Iraq from its territory. In early negotiations with the United States, Ankara spoke of sending in Turkish troops to set up a “buffer zone” perhaps 15 miles deep along the Iraqi border. This would prevent a flood of Kurdish refugees from northern Iraq, the Turks said.
But now, Newsweek has learned, Turkey is demanding that it send 60,000 to 80,000 of its own troops into northern Iraq to establish “strategic positions” across a “security arc” as much as 140 to 170 miles deep in Iraq. That would take Turkish troops almost halfway to Baghdad. These troops would not be under US command, according to Turkish sources, who say Turkey has agreed only to “coordination” between US and Turkish forces.
Ankara fears the Iraqi Kurds might use Saddam’s fall to declare independence. Kurdish leaders have not yet been told of this new plan, according to Kurdish spokesmen in Washington, who say the Kurds rejected even the earlier notion of a narrow buffer zone. Farhad Barzani, the US representative of the main Kurdish party in Iraq, the KDP, says, “We have told them: American troops will come as liberators. But Turkish troops will be seen as invaders.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment; officials elsewhere in the administration played down the Turkish demands as bargaining tactics: “We told them flat out, no.” But independent diplomatic sources in Ankara and Washington with knowledge of the US-Turkey talks say that while the precise depth of the “security zone” has still to be agreed, the concept is “pretty much a done deal,” as one observer put it.
These sources add that the main US concern has been that US, not Turkish, troops occupy the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, and that Turkish troops merely surround but not enter the heavily Kurdish cities of Erbil and Sulemaniye. To get Turkey’s assent to this, these sources say, the United States had to “cave” on its demand that Turkish troops be under US control.
Two days of tough negotiations in Washington last week failed to settle the other part of Turkey’s price: a multibillion-dollar economic package. Turkish PM Abdullah Gul is now threatening to delay the all-important vote in the Turkish Parliament to allow US deployments in Turkey. Pentagon officials acknowledge frustration at the problems Turkey’s bargaining poses for the US military buildup.
Turkish sources say that when Turkey’s Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis met with President Bush on Friday, the president warned that the United States might open a northern front against Iraq without Turkish participation. But military sources say that would be close to impossible.
“Turkey is playing hardball,” said Michael Amitay of the Washington Kurdish Institute. “But if the US agrees to these Turkish deployments, there is a real risk that the Kurds will start a guerrilla war against the Turkish troops.” —Newsweek
Yet you say in post 12:
Judging from the quiet of the otherwise vocal Turkish military, I'd say our boys figured something out about you, and it must smell reeeealy bad to them..
That is hardly a reciprocation of trust.
The 'pie' I am referring to is land, control of the natural resources, and the post-war political structure. There is a need to replace the Iraq of today with a better model. That will not be an easy task, and it only gets harder when there are conflicting occupying forces. That, in my opinion, would be the danger of going in under the UN umbrella. The same problem will erupt if Turkey decides that it has a 'section' of Iraq under their sole control.
We're asking them to risk weapons of mass destruction being used against their people, their cities.
They are already at risk. The whole world is. The only way Turkey would avoid the risk is if they yield to the terrorists, and I don't think that is in their future plans.
Shoo, lol.
We might create and prop up a new Kurdistan to punish the Turks if the Turks play games and delay redeployment of our forces waiting offshhore, but shouldn't do so if they quickly say no go. But we will have to take over the unpleasant task of policing northern Iraq, or an independent Kurdistan there, regardless.
We don't need Turkish help to conquer Iraq, and it wouldn't mean much if we had it. We don't need Turkish help controlling the Kurdish areas of Iraq afterwards, but their help would sure be desirable. But IMO their political system is such that they can't make any deal with us.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander.
"The Kurds will turn on us just as quick as the pro-Iranian rebels in the South..."
I agree with you.
Does Turkey entirely trust us? Probably, in general terms, yes, but where key Turkish interests are involved, she obviously needs confirmation. Written, preferably, but in the absense of a written agreement, some kind of crystal clarity.
I would say we have the same situation.
But Turkey can look past our promises, to see the pressures we are under, and the other promises we have made, that may affect our ability to keep our word with Turkey. Its precisely because Turkey understands us, that she is mistrustful; not mistrustful of our honor, but mistrustful of our ability to keep every promise we have made. And wanting to make sure that if we have to back off on a promise, it isn't theirs.
We have the same situation. We know what kind of Iraq we want to build, and we know what kind we have promised to build. We need to know that Turkey is going to be a partner in this work, that her other concerns aren't going to undercut the work we have to do. Specifically, that they will not let their problems with the PKK interfere with building a Kurdish government in the territory. That while protecting the Turkic minority they will not go beyond fair. That they will not attempt to exert control over the oil.
If Turkish troops are under our command, then none of this is a question. If they are not, and are there separately, then we need clarity about what their intentions are. These are fair questions. Turkey needs to know the same about us, and I have no doubt we have had endless discussions.
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