Gul: Government May Take Decision On Sending Soldiers To Iraq Toward End Of September

ANKARA - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday that the government could take a decision on dispatching soldiers to Iraq toward the end of this month.
Speaking to NTV private tv channel, Gul said that especially risk analyses should be completed for the government to take the necessary decision and noted that information brought by Turkish delegation who had talks in Iraq would be assessed.
Gul said that when assessments were continuing in Turkey, talks between Turkish and U.S. delegations would also carry on and stated that another delegation from the United States would come to Turkey next week.
Noting that all those things would be collected and brought together in September, he said that the government could come to the phase of taking a decision on the issue toward the end of September.
Gul said that the United States provided wide-scale options about the sector where Turkish soldiers would possibly be deployed and stated that Turkey would make a choice among those options.
Gul noted that if Turkey decided on the issue, dispatch of around 10,000 Turkish soldiers could be in question.
Upon a question on reactions of neighbor countries upon dispatch of Turkish soldiers in Iraq, Gul said, ''if we go there, we will go with a feeling of big responsibility and doing a mission. The whole world knows it and neighbor countries also know it.'' Gul recalled that neighbor countries also attributed importance to territorial integrity of Iraq as much as Turkey.
Gul underlined that Turkey defended territorial integrity of Iraq and it also defended that natural resources belonged to Iraqi people and a government elected by the Iraqi people should come to the power as soon as possible.
When he was reminded the U.S. President George Bush's statements, Gul said that they thought that Bush's statements on north of Iraq aimed to explain that there was less chaos in that region.
Recalling that Turkey said that a resolution which would come out from the U.N. Security Council would make things easier from the very beginning, he said that there were very serious initiatives in the United Nations.
Gul added that he thought that the United State had to include the U.N. more into the process and it had to take it into consideration.

BASBUG: ''AIM OF TALKS WITH U.S. IS TO PROVIDE MILITARY INFORMATION NECESSARY FOR COUNCIL OF MINISTERS' DECISION''
Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug said that the aim of the talks with U.S. about Iraq was only to provide military information which was necessary for Council of Ministers to give a decision.
Gen. Basbug who attended the reception held upon Pakistani Defense Day responded to questions of journalists.
Noting that General Staff continued its talks with the U.S. about the Iraqi issue within the scope of the authority given by the Prime Minister, Gen. Basbug said that they would probably get additional information within one-two weeks at U.S. Central Command (Centcom) and that they would submit this information to the cabinet.
Gen. Basbug said that there were no definite lines for the moment over the region and about force structure, adding that the thing that mattered for them was to assess which regions had what kind of risks.
Gen. Basbug stressed that there was no problem in the talks.

TURKEY'S DISPATCH OF SOLDIERS TO IRAQ WILL CONTRIBUTE TO SETTLEMENT OF SECURITY

BAGHDAD - Entifadh Kanbar, the spokesman of Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council's nine-member presidency who is serving for September, said on Tuesday that Turkey's dispatch of soldiers to Iraq would contribute to settlement of peace and prosperity which was the one of the most important problems in the country.
Kanbar told A.A correspondent that as Iraqi National Congress, they would welcome the participation of Turkish forces under the United Nations (U.N.) resolution to set a peace and prosperity in Iraq.
Turkish army had served settlement of peace and prosperity in Afghanistan in the best way, Kanbar said.
Kanbar noted that Turkish soldiers could also be successful in especially the west of Iraq.
That issue would be the most important agenda item of a delegation of Interim Governing Council who would hold meetings in Turkey, Kanbar stated.
Asked if they would support deployment of Turkish soldiers in their country if a new U.N. resolution was passed, Kanbar said that it was too early to reply to that question, but they wanted the U.N. to take a new resolution.
When he was recalled about the statement of Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who said that ''they did not want any Turkish soldiers in Iraq'', Kanbar said that he did not talk to Zebari but Zebari could mean north of Iraq when he made that statement.
Kanbar stated that dispatch of Turkish soldiers to Iraq was being negotiated by the Interim Governing Council and he did not know when a final decision could be made.
A decision depended on the course of negotiations, Kanbar said.
Replying to a question on possible objection of some Kurdish officials to passage of Turkish soldiers from north of Iraq if they decided to undertake mission in Iraq, Kanbar said that the issue was being taken up by the Interim Governing Council and that he could not say anything on behalf of them.
Kanbar added that he could guarantee that a solution which could satisfy all sides about how those forces could come to their country and the technical details would be found.
Kanbar said that there was an issue which should be remembered on dispatch of Turkish soldiers to Iraq and stated that ''their way of inviting Turkish soldiers to Iraq, the region where Turkish soldiers would serve and the sector where those soldiers would be deployed would all be under the United Nations and international decisions.'' He said that he thought that military participation would also bring benefits to Iraqi people.
Asked whether or not Chalabi would make any concrete proposal to Turkish authorities on dispatch of soldiers, Kanbar said that he did not have any information whether a concrete proposal would be made, but Chalabi would put forward his ideas which would also serve to the interests of both sides.
Stating that Interim Governing Council delegation's visit to Turkey would be ''very important'', Kanbar said that they wanted to establish new constructive relations between the two countries which had common interests, a long history and cultural relations.
Kanbar said that they believed that Turkish people and government could do very important things to save Iraqi people from this difficult situation and stated that both countries had opportunities that could improve cooperation for a better future.
(BRC-EÖ-AÖ- Öª) 09.09.2003