BY FIKRET BILA
MILLIYET- Columnist Fikret Bila comments on the issue of Turkey sending its soldiers to Iraq. A summary of his column is as follows:
Statements so far on the question of Turkey sending soldiers to Iraq show that the government will call Parliament to an extraordinary session and submit a proposal on this issue. Remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul indicated that the government would do call Parliament back in September. Both the government and the General Staff are leaning towards sending soldiers. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has put forth his views on establishing a legal foundation. He thinks that Parliament’s view should be taken as a basis. However, the Republican People’s Party is voicing its opposition to deployment at every opportunity. The AKP parliamentary group will determine the outcome of the proposal on sending soldiers. This time the government will try to head off the no votes.
When I asked Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin how the party is leaning, he predicted that this time Parliament would accept the proposal. ‘My impression is that this time a consensus was reached at this week’s summit,’ he said. ‘Therefore I don’t expect any problems in Parliament passing the new proposal. As for the group decision, we have never taken a group decision concerning such issues as we haven’t found it necessary. I don’t think we’ll need such a thing this time either.’
Sahin also expects that this issue will be discussed during next Monday’s Cabinet meeting. As we see from Gul’s statements, Ankara isn’t hopeful for a United Nations resolution. However, it’s understood that even without this, the government is ready to go into action. The outcome lies in the hands of the AKP group. Its decision will be a test of Erdogan’s leadership and the government’s power to get things done.