Turkish Parliament Speaker Says Troop Vote Rejected

Reuters ^

[RCW2001]

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament speaker said on Saturday a motion to allow U.S. troops into the country for a possible war in Iraq had been rejected, a member of parliament told reporters. The issue is crucial to U.S. military plans and Turkey's relations with Washington.

The vote, carried out behind closed doors, ended with 264 votes for and 251 votes against with 19 abstentions -- an apparent slim victory for the government.

But the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) challenged the result on the grounds that the government had not won the 267 votes needed to represent a majority of the 534 lawmakers present in the assembly.

The government must now decide whether to try to present a similar resolution to the assembly again and gather the few votes it needs.

The resolution, which would also have cleared the way for dispatching Turkish troops to Iraq in case of war, had drawn widespread opposition in Turkey.

Fearing the economic and political impact of any conflict on its borders, Ankara had been reluctant to agree to any role in the war. Rejection of Washington's request will however deprive Turkey of U.S. financial support and a say in the future of northern Iraq, where Turkey has key interests.

U.S. ships are currently waiting with supplies off Turkey's Mediterranean coast to unload. For months Ankara and Washington have been working on an agreement which was expected to include some $6 billion in U.S. grants for Turkey and some $24 billion in loan guarantees.

[Turk2]

NTV says 264 is not enough for approval. 267 was needed.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Dog Gone]

WHAT????

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

That's mighty big of Turkey considering the billions of dollars that we've given them. I wonder how much we had to bribe them to get them to finally relent.

I think it sucks that Turkey manipulated this whole situation to see how much money and grief they could weasel out of the United States. We'll remember this in the future. We never should have allowed them NATO defensive weaponry until they agreed to accommodate our troops.

[smokeyjon]

Tony Snow just reported that 267 was needed.

[willgetsome]

Lets not get ahead of ourselves:


"But Turkey and the United States still have to seal an agreement over the military, political and economic conditions of the deployment before troops can arrive and ships carrying armor for the U.S. 4th Infantry Division anchored off the Turkish coast can begin to unload"

[byteback]

Great news. I have a beer riding that we attack by the 13th. Brit Hume was talking about late March last night but that seems way late and into the April heat.

[smokeyjon]

FNC crawl: Opposition partuy in Turkey is challenging the vote because it was not an absolute majority

[cookcounty]

Yes : 264
No : 251
Abs : 19

264 is a plurality, but not a majority
(total votes=534, 267 is exactly half, 268 would be majority)

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

THE WAR STARTS TONIGHT!!!!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Let's hope they don't know the Florida recount move.

Oops, opposition party now challenging the results since it wasn't a majority.

You and your big mouth keyboard! :^)