Will the US keep its promises?

‘I gave this example: If you said there were 100 al Qaeda members in Turkey, what would you expect from us? Now since you’re the force power in Iraq, this is what we expect from you.’ These fair expectations are continuing. During a conversation with a fellow government minister, Gul said, ‘To date, the US hasn’t delivered a single terrorist from northern Iraq to us. I don’t know why. However, I’ve gotten the impression from unofficial meetings that if we don’t accept the proposal to send our soldiers to Iraq, the US won’t deliver any terrorists. It’s waiting for our decision to send soldiers.’

Reliable sources from the Foreign Ministry told me that the US is leaving the PKK terrorists in northern Iraq’s Mt. Kandil region untouched. It thinks moving against them might cause more problems. However, it’s also made promises to Turkey. It knows that sooner or later it must do something. Clearly it wants to send Ankara the following message: ‘We’re very busy in Iraq and we don’t have enough soldiers there. But if you send your soldiers in, we’ll use our troops to attack the PKK.’ The conditions set up by the US are crystal clear, that is, send your soldiers so we can fight against the PKK. Politics is cruel. Balances are based on interests, and sometimes double standards leave their marks on international relations.

Should we send soldiers to Iraq? And if we send them, what conditions should we demand? If we don’t, how can we handle being excluded from the postwar Iraq table? How would spoiled relations with the US affect our security and economy? Obviously it wouldn’t help. In addition, if we help to establish stability to Iraq, both our future regional position and bilateral relations with Iraq would improve. Ankara is now discussing the pros and cons of all these questions. However, most probably the final decision will be in favor of sending our soldiers to Iraq.”