Posted on 03/01/2003 6:06:48 PM PST by TheOtherOne
Turkish Parliament Rejects U.S. Plan to Send 62,000 Combat Troops to Turkey for Iraq War
Published: Mar 1, 2003
|
|
|
The decision, which likely will strain ties with Washington, marked a setback to U.S. efforts to show Saddam Hussein that he is surrounded and his neighbors support a U.S.-led coalition.
The parliament vote was 264-250 in favor, with 19 abstentions. But speaker Bulent Arinc said the outcome fell three votes short of the simple majority required by the constitution. He then closed parliament until Tuesday.
Prime Minister Abdullah Gul hastily met with top ministers and party leaders after the vote. Before going in, a visibly shaken and angry Gul said, "We will assess all this."
Gul did not speak after that meeting. Private NTV and CNN-Turk television stations quoted unnamed officials as saying the government was not planning to resubmit the motion to parliament.
Officials were not immediately available for comment. The leaders of Gul's Justice and Development Party are expected to meet Sunday to discuss what action to take.
U.S. Ambassador Robert Pearson rushed to the Foreign Ministry after the vote.
"We had certainly hoped for a favorable decision," he said. "We will wait for further information and advice from the government of Turkey about how we should proceed."
Turkish lawmakers had faced overwhelming public opposition to basing U.S. troops on Turkish soil. Yet Washington had been so sure of winning approval from close ally and NATO member Turkey, that ships carrying U.S. tanks are waiting off Turkey's coast for deployment and the U.S. military has thousands of tons of military equipment ready to unload at the southern Turkish port of Iskenderun.
For weeks, the Bush administration had been pressing Turkey to agree to a possible northern front, which would split Saddam Hussein's army between the north and the south, likely making a war shorter and less bloody.
The motion would have empowered Turkey's government to authorize the basing of up to 62,000 troops, 255 warplanes and 65 helicopters. In exchange, Washington promised $15 billion in loans and grants to cushion the Turkish economy from the impact of war.
Besides that funding, Turkey also risks losing Washington's support which was crucial in securing billions in loans that rescued the country during an economic crisis in 2001.
The United States has also pushed Turkey's eagerly sought candidacy in the European Union. And if Turkey does not agree to host U.S. forces, it loses a say in the future of neighboring Iraq if there is a war.
That is a critical issue for Turkey, which fears that a war could lead Kurds in northern Iraq to declare an independent state and in turn inspire Turkey's own Kurdish minority.
Nonetheless, Turkey's governing party had difficulty selling the unpopular measure to the Turkish people and could not push through the motion despite its overwhelming majority in parliament.
Polls show as much as 94 percent of the Muslim-dominated Turkish public opposes a war with Iraq. Before the vote, 50,000 Turks staged an anti-war rally near parliament as 4,000 police stood guard. They chanted "No to War" and "We don't want to be America's soldiers." Some carried banners that read: "The people will stop this war."
After the speaker nullified the vote, hundreds of Turks celebrated in the streets of central Ankara, shouting anti-U.S. slogans.
"We are all Iraqis ... We will not kill, we will not die," they chanted. They also accused the Islamic-rooted Justice party of "collaborating" with Washington.
The Justice party was planning to meet Sunday, said Reha Denemec, the party's deputy chairman. "We did not expect these results, but this is a democracy," he said.
AP-ES-03-01-03 2023EST
They were, are, and will continue to squeeze and blackmail us. Hey, about using those $15 billion we will be sending to Africa to fight the pseudo AIDS epidemic to pay off the Turkish?
You nailed it.
EVERYBODY GET THE H*LL OUT OF THE KITCHEN IMMEDIATELY! Dinner is about to be served. ALL BS negotiations, deals, and arrangements are now null, void, AND irrelevant...
BTW, the massive round-the-clock bombing begins in five minutes.
Lots of players here..Russia prime..Turkey too..in that the Turks have a big slice in oil/gas pipelines ,terminals,and the Euro Insurance thingy.
Caspian oil/gas is not good quality..it requires cleaning..and is costly.
U.S. oil firms want the low sulphur oil of Iraq and the Persian gulf..content to build pipelines via consortium with the new Stans...with a view of providing the Orient for its new thirst.
Turkey:
Clearly they are not waffling like they have some internal thing to work out..bluntly...Europe and Russia are diverting Turkeys attention.
Europe is chaffing at the words of the U.S of recent...they are getting even by stroking the Turks...who are throwing a wrench in things.
Turkey is in a vulnerable spot however...Russia is by no means able to foot the money needed to keep Caspian chugging along...Russia does the dance still of buying U.S. Dollars and buying into the Euro.
Turkey may be intoxicated with its new power and friends,...she should also consider her fate..which could easily become a Jobe Ash heap like Iran..who paid big time for screwing up the oil/military contracts of the past....
Iran......still staggering in third world oblivion.
****************************
Project to build gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey is launched February 28, 2003 Baku, February 28, 2003. (CNA). The international partners working to build a natural gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey gave the US$3.2 billion project the go-ahead on Thursday. When complete, the project will pump an estimated 8.4 billion cubic meters (296.61 billion cubic feet) of gas annually from the Shah Deniz field through Baku and the Georgian capital Tbilisi to Erzurum in Turkey. Construction gets underway next year, and the first gas deliveries are expected in 2006. "Another milestone has been achieved," Medjid Kerimov, Azerbaijan's minister of fuel and energy, said at the official ceremony in Baku, according to a press statement. "The scale of the project means that Azerbaijan is now firmly positioned to become a major gas exporter." Natig Aliev, president of Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company, said the project will help bring this impoverished region "economic prosperity and stability." BP PLC will operate the pipeline. Other participants are Norway's Statoil, Azerbaijan's state oil company and France's TotalFinaElf. The project calls for a drilling platform, five underwater wells, two underwater pipelines, aboveground pipelines, and an onshore processing terminal. A Russian diplomat this week expressed concern about the environmental impact of pipelines along the bottom of the Caspian, but there was no indication that Russian complaints would have any direct effect on the project.
Fears mar launch of BP-Statoil energy project February 28, 2003 AN ENERGY project linking gasfields in the Caspian Sea with Europe was launched yesterday by BP and Statoil, of Norway. But the $3.2 billion (£2 billion) investment is dogged by concerns that Turkey, the main buyer for the fuel, will not need the gas when it comes on stream in 2006. Statoil, which has taken on the role of commercial operator for the Shah Deniz gas project, said that contracts for gas sales had been signed with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. A pipeline will stretch 690km from the Shah Deniz gasfield offshore from Baku to Erzurum in eastern Turkey where it will join the gas grid operated by Botas, Turkey’s state gas company. Deliveries of gas are expected from early 2006 but analysts doubt that there is a market for the fuel because the economy is stagnating and Turkey has bought too much gas. A spokesman for Statoil agreed that demand was an issue. “At the end of the day it looks like there will be a gas surplus but we don’t think we will have a problem because our gas is priced very competitively.” Turkey recently renegotiated a contract to buy gas from Russia, securing a 9 per cent price reduction for the fuel, which reaches Turkey through the recently completed Blue Stream pipeline under the Black Sea. Turkey has also agreed to buy gas from Iran and liquefied gas from Nigeria but the Government has twice lowered its forecasts of an increase in demand for the fuel. Botas has plans to re-export gas through a planned pipeline to Greece and another line running north to Austria but these projects are at very early stages of planning. BP and Statoil each have a quarter share in the gasfield and the South Caucasus pipeline, which will follow the route of the controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.