In Turkey, body backs admitting US soldiers

The National Security Council, which combines Turkey’s military leadership with the prime minister and other key civilian leaders, is considered the decisive voice in the country’s military affairs and foreign relations. Its call on Parliament to act was thus likely to please US war planners. But according to the constitution, Parliament must vote on any decision to host foreign troops, leaving the final word to the governing Justice and Development Party, which faces a public strongly opposed to war.

In a convoluted two-page statement, the council was vague on the question of timing, urging the government to call a vote ”according to a calendar to be determined by monitoring developments.” US officials have expressed fear that, given the political sensitivities here, the vote will come too late for the Pentagon to position the forces that could invade Iraq across its 250-mile border with Turkey. ”The important thing to us is timing, timing, timing,” said a US official.
When an attack might come remains unclear even in Washington. But the Bush administration’s conspicuous encirclement of Iraq assumes Turkish cooperation: elements of the First Infantry Division, based in Germany, already have received orders to deploy to Turkey as soon as they receive authorization from Ankara.
The council’s public statement made no mention of the size of the foreign force Turkey might accommodate, although negotiations between Turkish and American officials have concentrated on scenarios that would put no more than 20,000 infantry on Turkish soil at a time.
The Bush administration also has asked Turkey to accept war planes at several military bases in addition to Incirlik, from which US and British flights have enforced the no-fly zone above northern Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War. Analysts and officials said such details were surely hashed over in the six-hour meeting, but the public statement was confined to broad recommendations.

A Turkish diplomat, asked whether the National Security Council statement would satisfy the increasing US appetite for a clear answer from Turkey, replied: ”I don’t think it will frustrate them. It’s the first time we specify the [wartime] article of the constitution. So it’s more prone to satisfy the US administration, I should say.”
Another Turkish official called the statement balanced, urging on the peacemaking effort that Turkey has spearheaded in recent weeks while acknowledging the time has come to prepare for ”military measures required to protect fully Turkey’s national interests against possible unwanted developments.”
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Ankara, where the council convened, declined comment.