The General Staff’s Stance

BY MUSTAFA BALBAY

CUMHURIYET- Columnist Mustafa Balbay comments on yesterday’s press briefing by the General Staff. A summary of his column is as follows:

Yesterday’s press briefing by the General Staff laid out for the public the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) stance on the Iraq issue.

1. It emphasized that the resolution to send Turkish soldiers to Iraq wasn’t a military decision, but a political one. This was stressed both in the written text and in Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug’s question-and-answer session. Gen. Basbug read the last paragraph of the motion regarding the deployment. Here, the message to the government was that the responsibility belonged to it.

2. The TSK calls the act of sending of soldiers to Iraq ‘participation in the stability force.’ In other words, Turkey won’t participate in an occupation led by the US and Britain. Instead, it will be a country contributing to efforts to establish stability.

3. During the briefing, certain dates were made clear. The meetings with the US military began on Aug. 5. Then on Sept. 4 the General Staff discussed progress on the issue, and the studies on Iraqi domestic sentiment were conducted on Aug. 22-Sept. 4.

4. The TSK doesn’t consider the US’ stance on the PKK/KADEK to be satisfactory.

5. The repentance law didn’t yield what many had hoped. On this issue, Gen. Basbug said, ‘Yes, this law didn’t give the desired results, but the stance the US takes may tip the balance.’

6. Following the passage of the troop deployment motion last week, everybody was wondering what routes Turkish soldiers would use to enter Iraq. ‘Convenient roads and railways’ was the answer. What will happen if Kurdish groups attack? Gen. Basbug replied, ‘We can defend ourselves on that route.’

7. Issues of international law, term of duty and material aspects are beyond the TSK’s scope. Its stance is as follows: ‘We receive orders and then carry them out. Such questions aren’t ours to ask.’

8. At the end of the briefing, there was another question about plans to increase the number of students attending religious high schools by changing the Law on the Higher Education. Gen. Basbug said that such a change would be both unconstitutional and inappropriate. He added that he couldn’t understand why the number of such students should be increased. We hope the reasonable parties will win this one.