Hisarciklioglu Meets With U.S. Deputy Secretary Of Defense

WASHINGTON - Rifat Hisarciklioglu, the Chairman of Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), met on Friday with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
Hisarciklioglu also met with high-level bureaucrats of U.S. civilian administrative in Iraq Paul Bremer's office.
In the meeting, Wolfowitz said that Turkey and the United States had common interests in Iraq and noted that ''Turkish soldiers would bring peace and stability to Iraq.''
Prior to his departure from Washington, Hisarciklioglu told Turkish reporters that Wolfowitz gave the messages that ''Turkey and the United States had common interest in Iraq and they continued to defend territorial integrity of Iraq.''
Hisarciklioglu also quoted Wolfowitz as saying that ''self-determination of Iraq and settlement of democracy there was their target.''
TOBB Chairman also quoted Wolfowitz as saying in the meeting that there had been people who were against dispatch of Turkish soldiers to Bosnia but everybody then saw Turkish soldiers' contributions to peace and tranquility in Bosnia.
''This view of Wolfowitz should be considered a message to current interim governing council in Iraq and elements in the north who say that 'there is no need for dispatch of Turkish soldiers','' Hisarciklioglu said.
Hisarciklioglu noted that Wolfowitz said that every movement of the terrorist organization PKK/KADEK was watched by ''radar'' and recalled statement of U.S. President George Bush who said that making concessions of their determination to fight against terrorism was out of question.
Wolfowitz also expressed belief that Turkish private sector would play a very efficient role in Iraq.
Asked about his view on dispatch of soldiers to Iraq, Hisarciklioglu said, ''our policies are not contrary to general policies of Turkey.''
Stating that Turkey could not be indifferent to developments in Iraq, Hisarciklioglu said that decisions on security could be taken at the end of evaluations of president, National Security Council (NSC), government and soldiers.
Hisarciklioglu said, ''every kind of vacuum in Iraq affects Turkey. Continuation of instability in Iraq deeply harms security and economy. Prosperity should be settled in Iraq as soon as possible and Iraq should be more prosperous when compared with Saddam Hussein era. Now, it is worse than those days. As Turkish private sector, we want to make contributions to Iraq.''
The United States should give priority to economic welfare to end terrorism in the region as soon as possible, Hisarciklioglu pointed out.
Hisarciklioglu said, ''Turkish businessmen think that the biggest problem in making business in Iraq is the difficulty in receiving information. Also, security of goods to be sent from Turkey to Iraq, unnecessary fees taken in passage to Iraq and the lack of banking system are other problems.''
TOBB Chairman Hisarciklioglu added that he planned to go to Brussels to attend the seminar on Turkey and European Security organized by NATO.
(BRC-AY) 20.09.2003