WASHINGTON - National Defense University (NDU) National Strategic Institutes Director Anne Moisan on Friday proposed Turkey to send 5,000 ''humanitarian-military'' support force to Iraq as a pilot program.
Moisan made the proposal at a meeting entitled, ''Turkey's new role: current difficulties, future opportunities in Iraq and in the region''.
Moisan stated that those were her individual proposals and did not have any connection with U.S. administration or army.
NDU is known as an institution responsible for giving professional military training.
Moisan said Turkey's attitude on dispatch of soldiers would be clarified in October, stating that Turkey gave assurances to United States about its willingness to send soldiers.
Moisan said it would be better to send around 5,000 people Turkish force, which is not combatant, to the region for humanitarian aims by taking into consideration the sensitivities in Turkey and in Iraq.
Moisan said the military team should be comprised of medical experts, electricians, and installers of plumbing.
Stating that a Turkish general could be responsible for those 5,000 soldiers and that he could directly give report to Paul Bremer, the civilian administrator of U.S. in Iraq.
Timur Soylemez, First Secretary of Turkey's Embassy in Washington, who also addressed the meeting, stated that Turkey main target was to help Iraq people.
Pointing out that Turkish officials considered many criteria for dispatch of soldiers, Soylemez said one of them was the assessment of what Iraq people wanted.
Soylemez said view of Turkish public would play an important role on this decision, stating that, ''whatever decision the government takes, this would be brought to Parliament in constitutional responsibility and that general sensitivity of the parliament was important.''
Soylemez stressed the importance of existence of terrorist PKK organization in Iraq, and noted that, ''PKK is included in list of the United States for terrorist organizations. We expect full cooperation from the United States as this country undertook responsibility for security of region.
Soylemez said Turkey already made contributions to electricity service in Iraq, and projects like construction of hospitals in Mosul and Kirkuk.
(AY-AÖ) 26.09.2003