Iraqi Council still against military deployment of neighbours
"Council is against military deployment of all neigbours but not only Turkish soldiers. And our decision is firm and last. Because we don’t want to spoil friendship between two countries or shed Turks’ blood here. We want to develop the relationship and cooperation with Turkey in future. There is a statement of Turkish goverment saying "we won’t send soldiers if Iraqis don’t want." We appreciate this statement.
Touching on last statements of Paul Bremer on Ottoman Empire, Dr. Abdulhamid said, "it is imposibble that Ottomans were a colonialist. When Ottomans were here, they were not occupiers but, in fact, they protected here from Cristhians, preventing war of this country against Christians. Because ruling of Muslims over other Muslims is not an occupation. Ottomans, doing their responsibilities in the best way, bridged governing gap here. Unfortunately, Arabic nationalists recognize only last 9 years of Ottoman domination instead of considering 400-year service. So this cause mistakes. As for statements of Paul Bremer, he is a Christian. There is freedom in the world so everyone can say everything. But he is only responsible from his own words."
He also commented on rising attacks against soldires, "there are lack of security, unemployment and bad treatment of US soldiers to residents. We have demanded US officials to hand over to find solition for both security and unemployment problems. But we couldn’t get a result from bilateral meetings."