Turkey hints it may not enter Iraq

COMMENTS BY ARMED forces Chief of General Staff Hilmi Ozkok came a day after Washington announced proposals for war aid loans of up to $8.5 billion for Turkey. The dispatch of troops to Iraq against U.S. advice would make congressional approval of such a package, already in jeopardy after Turkish refusal to allow a U.S. invasion from its soil, less likely still.
Kurdish groups in northern Iraq say they will resist any Turkish deployment, possibly by force.
Ozkok said Turkey was concerned by dangers posed by any large flow of refugees from Iraq and by any intercommunal fighting between Iraqi Kurds and Turkmen, a group Ankara regards as oppressed ethnic kin.
“I believe the Turkish armed forces could make a decision to send additional troops to northern Iraq if it is understood our forces already there will be unable to handle such threats and dangers,” he told a news conference in the southeastern town of Diyarbakir, not far from the Iraqi border.
Ozkok had been scheduled to speak on the border itself, at the town of Silopi, but perhaps significantly decided to hold his briefing further away, in Diyarbakir.
“Undertakings will be coordinated with the United States, our strategic ally still fighting a war in the region, to avoid any misunderstandings,” he said. “If it reaches that point we will not enter northern Iraq to wage war or to occupy it.”
Previously, Turkish leaders have been more insistent, without Ozkok’s qualifications, that Turkey would send in troops to supplement a smaller force long in place there. Trucks and armor stand ready on the mountainous frontier.
MARKETS WARM TO PROSPECT OF AID
Turkish markets warmed to the prospect of the financial package, although it is smaller than the $30 billion Ankara forfeited when it refused the United States leave to launch a ground attack on Iraq by 62,000 troops from Turkish soil.
The Turkish lira rose against the dollar off all-time lows and bond yields fell in a sign of investor interest. The confidence remains, however, dependent largely on U.S. goodwill.
The European Union proposed doubling its aid to Turkey over the next three years to around $1.12 billion, but said Turkey’s EU candidacy would be jeopardized if it intervened in Iraq.
“If there were to be some kind of invasion or crossing the border, this would have serious consequences on relations with the EU,” Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen said.
The United States, fearing conflict between Turks and Kurds could undermine its military operations, argues that, on the seventh day of war in neighboring Iraq, there are no signs of a refugee flow towards the frontier.
TURKEY FEARS IRAQI KURD INDEPENDENCE
It has told Turkey it need not fear that Kurdish Peshmerga fighters now working with U.S. forces in Iraq would be allowed to establish an independent Kurdish state. Ankara sees a Kurdish state in northern Iraq as first step to a broader “Kurdistan” that would lay claim to Turkish territory.
Some 30,000 people died in an armed Kurdish separatist campaign in the 1980s and 1990s in the southeast of Turkey around Diyarbakir.
Kurdish militia, backed by Washington, fear Turkey might move to crush the autonomy they have enjoyed in northern Iraq since it broke from Baghdad’s control after the 1991 Gulf War.
Turkey has kept a small detachment of troops in northern Iraq since it came under Kurdish control, arguing it must protect the Turkmen minority and root out Turkish Kurdish rebels who have withdrawn to mountains there. Current estimates put the Turkish detachment at anywhere between 3,000 and 17,000 troops.
Ozkok expressed incomprehension at U.S. pressure.
“I have difficulty understanding those on the other side of the ocean who say they are under threat but do not believe Turkey when it says we face those same threats directly across our borders,” he said.
“If one day these events spiral out of control, I hope our friends will not be forced to ask us to take actions they now oppose.” U.S. GENERAL IN KURDISH NORTH
Meantime, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Henry P. Osman arrived in Irbil in Kurdish controlled-northern Iraq on Sunday. Osman is Commanding General, II Marine Expeditionary Force, and was previously an officer on the Joint Staff heavily involved in the war on terror.
Osman is likely to command a joint force with a lead element of Marines from Camp LeJeune, N.C. It remains unclear how large and what its mission will be.
A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Osman would outrank Kurdish generals “thereby insure that the U.S. determines what the future of Kurdistan will be.”
The official also hinted that moving a Osman into Kurdish territories was part of the deal with the Turks.