US General Not Impatient with Turkey on Iraq

“Any idea that I’m impatient or that we made demands here is not the case. It was nothing of the sort,” Myers told reporters before departing. He said he shared Turkey’s view that a peaceful settlement with Iraq was the preferred option.
“Turkey has been very co-operative in all this,” Myers said. “I’m leaving Ankara as many Americans have done in the past, very sure of our strategic partnership and very sure of the vision that we both have in terms of what we want for the region, and that is peace and stability.”
Turkey is reluctant to sanction a war on its neighbor, fearing economic and military turmoil, and has launched a regional diplomatic initiative to discuss ways to avoid war. Only minutes after Myers spoke, Prime Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters elsewhere in the capital that Turkey’s fragile economy, propped up by massive International Monetary Fund support, would suffer great damage in any war. “A possible Iraq war would be a very great burden for the economy. We want to use whatever resources we have to prevent this war breaking out,” Gul said.

NO UNBOUNDED SUPPORT FOR WASHINGTON
Turkey’s president said last week that the country’s status as a neighbor of Iraq meant there would have to be limits to any support it might offer Washington.
But Ankara is a close ally of the United States and would be hard put, for all its hesitation, to withhold support, including use of air bases, entirely.
U.S. warplanes have been flying out of Incirlik airbase in Turkey since the end of the 1991 Gulf War to patrol northern Iraq, a zone outside the control of Baghdad.
U.S. officials are in Turkey inspecting other airbases and facilities with a view to possibly using them in an attack on Iraq for allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction.
Press reports say the United States has asked to station tens of thousands of troops in Turkey to open a “northern front” against Iraq from the Turkish border, but that Turkey has been dragging its feet over U.S. requests.Most Turks oppose the idea of a war and Turkish officials have said they are uncomfortable with the idea of a large foreign troop presence.