ANKARA - Top U.S. commander to Europe and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) chief General James L. Jones will have meetings in Ankara and Istanbul during his visit to Turkey.
Gen. Jones will meet with Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok in Ankara and with First Army Commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanýt and other officials in Istanbul.
Gen. Jones is expected to come to Ankara on Tuesday and attend a dinner to be hosted in his honour. Gen. Jones who will start his contacts in Ankara on Sept. 3 will proceed to Istanbul after wrapping up his contacts in Ankara.
Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok who issued a statement during the August 30 reception, had said that they would also take up the Iraqi issue with Gen. Jones. Noting that they would have the first military meeting with U.S. officials within the scope of the authority they got from the government, Gen. Ozkok had stated that ''our target in this meeting is to obtain military information which the government needs about the things that can be done in Iraq and to submit this information as a study to the government. The decision which the government will give certainly depends on the decision of the parliament. We will get the military information that is needed. We won't do anything other than that.''
Gen. Ozkok had also added that a U.S. delegation would come to Turkey to hold technical meetings at the end of the weekend.
(ÖÞ-AÖ) 01.09.2003