NEW YORK - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Monday that the parliament would make a decision on dispatch of soldiers to Iraq till mid-October.
Gul, who attended a reception hosted in his honor in Turkish House in New York, said that the government had not yet taken its final decision on whether or not to send soldiers to Iraq and guessed that a decision could be taken till mid-October.
The process of dispatch of soldiers to Iraq would start as government completed its evaluation and took its final decision, Gul said.
Gul noted that then, the government would consult to the parliament and then, what was necessary would be done.
''As the government takes a decision, there will not be any problems in the parliament,'' Gul stated.
Gul said, ''the region proposed for deployment of Turkish units in Iraq starts from Baghdad and extends through Jordan-Syria border to Salahuddin. There are different zones in this region. This region can be divided into four or five parts. One of these places will be under our command. We will decide which one we will control.''
''If we are to go to Iraq, we should have a separate region under our own command and control,'' Gul said.
Gul noted, ''security of the region and Turkey, normalization of Iraq by preserving its territorial and political integrity and its self-determination as soon as possible are very important for Turkey.''
''A Turkish delegation visited every part of Iraq and met with the leading personalities, leaders of the tribes and the leading members of the movements there. We have made analysis,'' Gul said.
Evaluating stance of the United States on fight against the terrorist organization PKK, Gul said, ''the U.S. will not want to harm its reliability in fight against terrorism. They will have to fight against a terrorist organization which they included in the terrorist list even if we send soldiers or not. These two issues don't have any connection.''
Gul stated that Turkey had warned the United States that daily needs of Iraqi people should be met immediately after the war, but it could not receive any response in a short time.
''In the end, today's chaos has occurred,'' Gul said.
Gul pointed out that Turkey would start giving electricity as of the following week and a delegation of State Water Works (DSI) was in Iraq to deal with water works.
''We suggested all these immediately after the war. We told the U.S. officials that they were dealing with only security matters and neglected basic needs of people there. We suggested that we could meet basic needs there when the United States was dealing with the security. This is not an economic issue, but a social and humanitarian matter. We said that this can be the best contribution to the process. They did not respond to us and today's chaos has occurred,'' Gul said.
Gul stated that settlement of regional stability and Iraq's normalization would be for the benefit of Turkey.
Foreign Minister Gul, who will receive Ahmad Chalabi, the current President of Iraqi Interim Governing Council, later in the day, said, ''chaos in the region and increase in conflicts are harmful to Turkey. Therefore, we will take this into consideration when taking a decision.''
Gul said, ''if we are to go there, we will go as a part of political vision. We have told everybody that we won't go there as police force.''
Upon a question, Gul listed three main issues of Turkish foreign policy as ''starting full membership negotiations with the European Union, settling stability in Iraq as soon as possible, and finding a satisfactory and lasting solution to Cyprus issue.''
(BRC-AÖ) 22.09.2003