ANKARA - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Thursday that there was no decision about sending soldiers to Iraq and that a decision would be taken at the end of the assessment process.
Upon questions of journalists in Foreign Ministry after his meeting with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Gul said that he gave information to Sezer about issues with which the government deals very much nowadays, particularly about the Iraqi issue.
''I gave him information about what is being done, what is our situation. All of these are being evaluated. There is no decision now,'' Gul told reporters.
When asked if he explained President Sezer about the U.S.'s expectation of Turkey's taking a decision in a short time about sending soldiers to Iraq, Gul said that ''I was not engaged in anything in the U.S. I had said that I would bring the issue to the government and I did. The government took the decision of assessing the issue seriously. There are both political and military studies on the issue. A decision will be given in the end.''
When reminded about the news published in Financial Times saying that Kurdish groups in north of Iraq didn't want Turkish soldiers to pass from that region, Gul said that ''everybody has the right to say everything.''
(Öª-AÖ) 07.08.2003