News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinewar-on-terroriraqpost-2003-war — Viewing Item


Turkey sends troops { October 8 2003 }

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55561-2003Oct7.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55561-2003Oct7.html

Turkey Backs Peacekeeping Deployment; Iraqis Object

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 8, 2003; Page A01

BAGHDAD, Oct. 7 -- Turkey's parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to dispatch peacekeepers to Iraq, a move applauded by the U.S. government but opposed by members of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council.

Although the Bush administration had pushed the Turkish government to send what would be the first large contingent of peacekeepers from a Muslim nation as a show of support for the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the refusal by Iraq's interim political leaders to accept the Turkish force could complicate the deployment.

The Turkish government is keen not to alienate its neighbor, and the Bush administration is concerned about further antagonizing the Iraqi population. But U.S. officials also say they believe the need for additional troops, particularly from a Muslim country, could outweigh the objections from appointed Iraqi leaders, who remain subordinate to the American occupation authority.

The vote by Turkish lawmakers in Ankara occurred at the end of a chaotic 24-hour period in and around Baghdad. The U.S. military said three American soldiers were killed Monday evening in two roadside bombings on Baghdad's outskirts. On Tuesday morning, an explosion rocked the Foreign Ministry building, and two protests -- one by former intelligence officers and the other by angry Shiite Muslim activists -- brought large parts of the capital to a standstill.

Turkey's decision to send troops to Iraq left unresolved how many soldiers it would dispatch and when. U.S. and Turkish officials said those issues are expected to be worked out in negotiations with the U.S. government over the next few weeks.

Some U.S. officials have expressed a desire to base as many as 10,000 Turkish soldiers in the area immediately north and west of Baghdad, where resistance to the occupation has been fiercest. There appeared to be little chance that they would be based in far northern Iraq, an area populated largely by ethnic Kurds, a group with a long history of conflict with the Turks.

"The decision that came out of parliament is not one that will be executed immediately, this instant," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "Time will decide. The process will depend on developments."

Turkish leaders overcame public opposition to the deployment, arguing that sending troops would help give their country, a major trading partner of Iraq's, a role in the lucrative U.S.-led reconstruction effort here. They also expressed hope that the decision would help to mend ties with the Bush administration, which frayed before the war when Turkey refused to allow thousands of U.S. troops to invade Iraq from its territory.

"An Iraq that is in peace, that is on good terms with its neighbors, an Iraq that is stable, is in Turkey's interests," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said after the 358 to 183 vote in a closed session of parliament.

In Washington, White House press secretary Scott McClellan lauded the vote. "We welcome that decision and we'll be working with Turkish officials on the details of their decision," he said.

The Bush administration has been seeking to get as many nations as possible to send troops to augment the approximately 122,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

But in Baghdad, members of the Iraqi Governing Council said they were opposed to the deployment. Although Turkey has had cordial relations with Iraq in recent years, a history of 400 years of occupation by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, which lasted until the end of World War I, still rankles some Iraqis.

Council members said they discussed the deployment issue at a meeting on Tuesday and came to a consensus to oppose the presence of Turkish troops. "The council does not want other foreign troops in the country," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the council, reflecting Iraqi Kurds' unease over Turkey's role in postwar Iraq.

Council members said the release of a formal statement of opposition was put on hold after pressure from the U.S. occupation authority. The top U.S. civil administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, is scheduled to hold his regular weekly meeting with the council on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, one of several political organizations represented on the council, also said the body had rejected the entry of peacekeeping troops from neighboring countries. The council's current president, however, insisted on Tuesday night that the 24-member body had not reached an official position.

"There has been no decision by the Governing Council on this issue, despite what individual members are saying," Ayad Alawi said in a statement to the Reuters news service. "We have concerns about the deployment, it is true, but we understand the coalition decision to have additional troop contributions."

The latest vote could help clear the way for the U.S. government to move ahead in lending Turkey $8.5 billion, an arrangement that had stalled pending Turkey's decision on the troops.

Turkish officials have made little secret of what else they expect from the United States in exchange for the troops: help in cracking down on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is believed to have as many as 5,000 fighters holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, near the border with Turkey. An armed campaign for Kurdish autonomy within Turkey led to 15 years of often brutal warfare between the PKK and the Turkish military, leaving more than 35,000 dead.

"One of the most fundamental conditions for Iraq to live in peace and security is for the total cleanup of terrorist organizations," said Erdogan, the prime minister.

In Iraq, meanwhile, the first roadside bomb on Monday evening killed a soldier attached to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment who was traveling in a sport-utility vehicle just west of Baghdad. A second soldier was wounded in the incident, a military spokesman said.

When reinforcements arrived, they found a group of Iraqis placing a second explosive, prompting soldiers to open fire and arrest six suspects, the spokesman said.

An hour later, an explosion killed two soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division as well as their Iraqi interpreter in the town of Haswah, 25 miles south of Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers were wounded in the incident.

Traffic on the main highway leading to Baghdad's international airport was blocked for much of the day after scores of Shiites staged a boisterous demonstration to protest the closure of their mosque and the arrest of a prayer leader by U.S. soldiers for allegedly advocating a holy war against occupation forces.

After crowds swelled in the afternoon, U.S. troops fired concussion grenades and shot into the air in an effort to disperse the group. The protesters finally disbanded as the midnight curfew approached.

The midmorning explosion inside Iraq's Foreign Ministry compound, which caused no injuries, was described by witnesses as a mortar or rocket-propelled grenade attack, news services reported.

Staff writer Theola Labbé contributed to this report.


© 2003 The Washington Post Company


collateral-damage
detentions
economy
fake-letters
governance
humanitarian
iraqi-army
journalists
monetary-cost
most-wanted
polls
shooting-civilians
united-nations
3000 bodies mass grave
Americans parading naked iraqis { April 26 2003 }
Americas accuse british colonel { May 22 2003 }
Bush said cia just guessing about post war scenario { September 29 2004 }
Bush to proclaime combat phase over { May 1 2003 }
Bush wants civil war in iraq
Drug crisis grips baghdad { October 4 2003 }
France happy saddam end
Grief at iraqi mass grave
Interrogate with metallica
Iraq drug market explodes { February 17 2004 }
Iraq information minister returns
Iraq like chicago { September 5 2003 }
Iraq prosoner abuse probe
Iraq veterans turn war critics { January 23 2005 }
Iraqi civilians can now keep assault rifles { June 1 2003 }
Iraqs defeat us military in soccer
Israeli assassin gang iraq scientists
Japan rejects iraq troop dispatch now { November 13 2003 }
New policy shoot looters { May 14 2003 }
Philippines accounces pullout to save iraq hostage
Putin warns us on iraq effort { October 6 2003 }
Refiguring bush 30 thousand iraqi body count { December 17 2005 }
Rumsfeld denies shoot on sight
Rumsfeld tours iraq { April 13 2005 }
Saddam killing fields 1991 uprising
Sarin gas round found partly detonated in iraq
Seize weapons from iraqis { May 21 2003 }
Some carriers going home
State department forsaw trouble plaguing iraq { October 19 2003 }
Terror threat lowered yellow { April 16 2003 }
Troops vandalise ancient city ur { May 18 2003 }
Turkey sends troops { October 8 2003 }
US doesnt want elections in iraq { January 19 2004 }
Us halts aid plane { April 18 2003 }
Us hunts 91 pow { April 24 2003 }
Water sewage power problems in 2005 iraq { May 12 2005 }
Whitehouse to overhaul iraq afghan missions { October 6 2003 }
Wolfowitz concedes iraq errors { July 24 2003 }

Files Listed: 39



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple