ANKARA - Prime Minister and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked deputies to support the motion on sending soldiers to Iraq and said on Tuesday that they should not please the opposition.
The motion was taken up in a session which was closed to press of the AK Party group meeting.
Sources said that Erdogan asked the deputies to support the motion. Erdogan stated that AK Party had not taken a group decision since the first day of the party and noted that they would not take a group decision today, either.
Sources said that Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul informed deputies about the situation in Iraq and talks with the United States. Gul said that Turkey would play a key role in reconstruction of Iraq and stated that current conditions developed in a different way.
Stating that the United States could not be fully successful in Iraq without Turkey, he said that the region where Turkish soldiers would be deployed was not definite yet. Gul added that they wanted Turkish soldiers to be deployed in triangle of Mosul-Dohuk-Tikrit and said that when the region became definite, the number of soldiers would become definite.
Gul said that talks with the United States would continue and stated that after the motion was approved, the issue would become definite. Gul called the deputies to support the motion.
He added that security and interests of Turkey and settlement of peace and stability in the Middle East were the important reasons of sending soldiers to Iraq.
(EÖ-AÖ) 07.10.2003