New Turkey vote on U.S. troops

With U.S. ships waiting to unload military equipment at Turkish ports, Erdogan’s new government has been under intense pressure to allow U.S. forces to use its territory to open a northern front against Iraq.
Turkish officials are also concerned that if a U.S.-led coalition topples Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Kurds in northern Iraq could gain control of Iraqi oil fields and use that as leverage to create an independent Kurdish territory in northern Iraq.
That could prompt Kurds in southeastern Turkey could rise up as well, Ankara fears.
The leaders of the two major Iraqi Kurd political parties, Turkmen representatives, Turkish government officials and the U.S. special envoy to the northern Iraqi opposition have agreed on a plan to maintain the status quo in the region during and after a war with Iraq.
All parties in northern Iraq have agreed to cooperate fully with the U.S.-led coalition, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said in a written statement Tuesday.
Discourage refugees
The groups also committed to "discouraging uncontrolled movements of refugees and internally displaced persons and to avoid any acts whatsoever that could incite civil discord," the statement read.
Leaders of the three groups said they "will make statements and take other actions in support of the goal of discouraging such actions," the statement read.
The United States also agreed to control the flow of potential refugees into Kirkuk and Mosul during a war.
The three groups also agreed to set up a commission that creates a "legal and organized process to address the restitution of homes previously seized by Saddam Hussein’s regime," Khalilzad said in a statement.
Saddam seized the homes of some Kurds after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Some Kurds fled to Turkey. The fear was that they would return to a post-Saddam Iraq and reclaim their homes.