(Moqtada) Al Sadr warns Turkey not to send troops to Iraq (+others)

Al Sadr warns Turkey not to send troops to Iraq
29/08/2003 KurdishMedia.com

London (KurdishMedia.com) 29 August 2003: A representative of the largest Shiite group in Iraq, Mukteda El Sadr, has warned the Turkish Army against deploying forces in Iraq, reported the Turkish news channel NTV.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with NTV, Al Sadr said that any deployment of Turkish troops in his country would not be welcomed.

We would see the Turkish forces as a occupying force,” Al Sadr said. “We do not recognise the interim government either since it does not represent the Iraqi people,” he also said.

--snip--

http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=4241

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Turkey may send troops to Iraq

ANKARA, Aug 23: Turkey will send 10,000 troops to Iraq if the government decides to help the US-led coalition to restore stability there, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in an interview published on Saturday.

"We have not made a decision yet, but if we decide to send troops, their number would be about 10,000," the minister told the tabloid Star newspaper.

Gul said he was in favour of a Turkish deployment in Iraq, adding that it was necessary if a resurgence of attacks by the Kurdistan Workers' Party was to be contained.

--snip--

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en36495&F_catID=&f_type=source

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Turkey Claims Historic Duty to Intervene in Iraq

Agencies, Arab News

ANKARA, 25 August 2003 — As the region’s former colonial master, Turkey is claiming a historic duty to intervene in Iraq ahead of a debate today on sending troops there, while Kurdish leaders in the north of the occupied nation are vehemently against the deployment.

While a parliamentary vote on the deployment of troops in Iraq is not expected before mid-September, community leaders within Iraq have already been issuing their own warnings, and the issue has kicked off a fierce debate in Turkey where most of the population was against the US-led war.

“Turkey has major economic and political interests in Iraq,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in an interview published on Saturday, adding that any deployment would number at least 10,000 troops — a huge increase on the tiny symbolic contingents sent by most other coalition partners.

Iraq was one of Turkey’s biggest trading partners before the 1991 Gulf War, but commercial relations between the two nations have dwindled since. The north of Iraq is also home to that country’s restive Kurdish minority and, according to Ankara, a hiding place for Turkish Kurdish rebels. As a result, Turkish commentators have been citing the fact that Iraq was for some 400 years under Turkish control, in the form of the Ottoman empire, until its collapse after World War 1. “These lands of the fatherland were in the past defended by our ancestors, we have today the duty to do the same,” read a recent editorial in the mass-market Hurriyet newspaper.

Turkish authorities believe that around 5,000 militants from the Kudistan Workers’ Party party, now known as Kadek, have sought refuge in the mountains that straddle Turkey’s border with Iraq.

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http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/Feb%202003%20News/25%20n/Turkey%20Claims%20Historic%20Duty%20to%20Intervene%20in%20Iraq.htm

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Turks pressing U.S. to combat Kurdish rebels

SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer

Saturday, August 30, 2003




(08-30) 10:11 PDT DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AP) --

Turkey's war with Kurdish rebels threatens to become a whole new headache for the U.S. military in Iraq.

The rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey and who have in the past fought for a Kurdish homeland straddling Turkey-Iraqi border, have spurned Turkey's offer of amnesty and are threatening to end their four-year unilateral cease-fire on Monday unless Turkish soldiers stop attacking them.

That may spell not only the possibility of instability in southeastern Turkey but also in northern Iraq, where an estimated 5,000 rebels who fled a Turkish onslaught in the 1990s are hiding out in mountain villages and caves.

Having supported the American war on terrorism, led the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and cooperated in the hunt for al-Qaida operatives, Turkey feels entitled to U.S. support in fighting the rebels.

But the thinly stretched U.S. military would have a hard time against experienced fighters in remote mountain hideouts.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a television interview Friday, said the United States owed Turkey help. "After Sept. 11, Turkey fulfilled its responsibilities in combating international terrorism ... now it is time for you to fulfill your responsibility," he said.

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The United States may feel less obligated to Turkey, since Ankara refused to let U.S. invasion forces pass through the country en route to Iraq. But it also has a new reason to court Turkey: It's one of the countries being asked to send peacekeepers to Iraq.

Turkey will insist that in return, the United States should shut the rebel bases in Iraq, said Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

--snip--

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/08/30/international1311EDT0546.DTL

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Turkish troops in Iraq: Not wanted
28 August 2003
KurdishMedia.com (Translated)
{Summary} Turkish troops are not wanted in Iraq or South Kurdistan. Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians, and Turcomans, stating that the arrival of the Turkish military in Iraq would hinder democratic change and transformation in the region, conveyed the message No to the Turkish military.

By Mehmet Yaman, Zakho

Debate over the possibility of the Turkish army moving into Iraq as a peacekeeping force has met with a negative reaction on the part of the people living in South Kurdistan. The people, pointing out that the arrival of Turkish troops in Iraq would sabotage the efforts at restructuring and democratization, ask What has the Turkish military, which has been in South Kurdistan for years, done for the regions peace, stability, security, and harmony, that it could contribute anything to Iraq?

Local forces opposed to Turkish military

All the various political parties, institutions, and organizations in South Kurdistan are agreed that Turkish troops should not come to Iraq. The general view is that the Turkish troops would not be coming for harmony in Iraq, but rather in order to destroy the rights that the Kurds have already won there. PUK officials say, "We do not want Turkish troops to come to Iraq. It is clear what they want to do in Iraq, and world public opinion sees this." At the same time, KDP officials summarize their position in opposition to such an arrival by saying, "Our position has been known for a long time. KDP leader Masud Barzani, who before the war had said "We will turn Iraq into a graveyard for Turkish soldiers," made statements after the war to the effect that "Our greatest success was that Turkish troops did not come into Iraq."" As for the public, they note the relations that the local forces have had in the past with Turkey and call upon them to stand behind their words.

The Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians, and Turcomans that MHA spoke with in Dohuk and Zakho are opposed to the Turkish military, which favors the continuation of the status quo and is opposed to change, coming to Iraq under the name of a peacekeeping force. Kurdish shopkeeper Ramazan Ali said, "I do not want Turkish troops to come to Iraq under any circumstances whatsoever." Ali, stating that Iraq is not Afghanistan, and the Turkish military will not behave themselves in Iraq, warned that the troops would create unrest among the various peoples living in the region. Drawing attention to the Turkish military’s provocations against the Kurds, Ali said, "Turkey will want to have an impact on the political rights that the Kurds have won in the region. Turkey should first establish peace and stability at home before coming into Iraq."

Arab merchant Hamid Sadir Said is also against the Turkish army coming into the region, adding, "We are well acquainted with Turkey since Ottoman times, and the same mentality continues there." Said claimed that what the Ottomans did with swords, Turkey wants to do with cannons and rifles, pointing out that the Ottomans had caused quarrels among the Arab dynasties, Said said he was worried about clashes between brothers breaking out. Said commented that the Turkish military is a friend to Israel; they have an alliance. In the eyes of the Arabs, for Turkish troops to come to Iraq would mean the same thing as Israeli troops coming to Iraq. The Arab and Iraqi people will not accept this. He concluded by warning, "With the Turkish military settling in Iraq, the Turkish-Arab contradiction will deepen, and relations will be harmed."

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http://www.kurdmedia.com/reports.asp?id=1618

all sorts of little things adding up to "ugh".

Our "leaders" appear not to want to comment.
Probably a case of whatever you say, it will be wrong.