Turkey Agrees to U.S. Base Inspections

In a sign of Turkey’s uneasiness, Gul visited Iran Sunday while a trade minister met with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in Baghdad to press for a peaceful solution to the Iraq standoff. Analysts say that in the end Turkey will have no choice but to give in to some of the U.S. demands and that the visits are aimed at showing the public that Turkish leaders did all they could to avoid a war.
Gul’s decision to allow the base inspections came more than a month after U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz confidently told reporters in Ankara that Washington was ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade Turkish bases.
At the time, U.S. officials said they expected the base inspections to begin shortly after Wolfowitz left.
Even then, a decision on using the bases may not come soon. Turkish officials have repeatedly said they won’t make that decision until after U.N. weapons inspectors report late this month on progress in their operations in Iraq.
"At the end of the day, Turkey will probably have to make a deal with the United States on this," said Sami Kohen, a columnist with the newspaper Milliyet. "Turkey cannot afford a flat ‘no,’ but it is very difficult to say a big ‘yes.’"
Reports in Turkey have said Washington is asking to base as many as 80,000 soldiers in Turkey. The Americans are also looking to use Turkish air bases and to base commandos here.
During the Gulf War, the United States stationed more than 100 strike aircraft at Turkish air bases and apparently a small number of commandos also were in Turkey.
"I don’t think Turkey can accept any more assistance than Turkey granted to the Americans during the Gulf War," said Fehmi Koru, a columnist with the Islamic-leaning newspaper Yeni Safak who is close to the new government.
It is widely believed that at a minimum, the government will agree to letting U.S. warplanes and a small number of troops operate out of Turkey.
In a sign that Turkey is likely to eventually agree to at least a limited use of bases, U.S. and Turkish officials have been meeting to discuss a possible economic aid package to compensate Turkey for potential economic losses that international bankers put at between $4-15 billion.
Basing a large number of U.S. troops would be especially difficult for the new government, which is led by the Justice and Development Party, a conservative group with roots in the country’s Islamic movement.
"The public is against the war and that public is the constituency of the" party, Koru said.