BY ERDAL GUVEN
RADIKAL- Columnist Erdal Guven writes on Turkey’s Iraq policy. A summary of his column is as follows:
It’s now clearer than ever that Iraq doesn’t want the deployment of our soldiers on its soil, at least under the present circumstances. Washington and Ankara have at last managed to grasp this fact. The Iraqi opposition has gained a victory over the American plans. Of course, since the Iraqi ground is extremely slippery, we can’t predict the future. There are currently many factors in the country which might suddenly alter this picture. The opposition might break down in the future. Thus, we can’t argue that Iraq’s doors are closed to our soldiers forever.
The Turkish troop deployment issue had very important political and strategic aspects which would have provided our country with great opportunities for control over developments in the region. Now Ankara must find other formulas to boost its status in the region. In other words, we must ask ourselves whether or not Ankara has a plan B on the Iraq issue.
First of all, we must clarify what kind of a regime we want to see in Iraq. Then we should develop policies and strategies towards this end. Turkey is directly influenced by the region’s developments, which is why our politicians so often make the argument that Ankara can’t remain indifferent to the issue. Setting up a stable democratic regime would not only bring about positive developments for the Iraqi people, but also help our country to mitigate the adverse effects of the current chaos. Considering how the Iraqi opposition to Turkish troop deployment feared the arrival of our soldiers would exacerbate instability in the country, it becomes clearer how grievously mistaken was our Parliament’s decision authorizing the deployment in the first place. As a matter of fact, it was a dangerous decision with respect to our national interests.
Luckily, there are other ways we can contribute to peace and stability in the region. First, we need to establish solid, constructive relations with the Iraqi administration. That administration wants the foreign occupation to end as soon as possible. It wants peace, stability and democracy. Ankara’s mission should be to lend its full support to Iraq’s leaders to help them achieve these goals, which would benefit the entire region.
Ankara should understand that its interlocutor in the region is the Iraqi Governing Council, which is the most representative administrative body that the country has ever seen, no matter how it was formed. Ankara has adopted a hands-off attitude towards the council due to its powerful Kurdish elements. However, as a matter of fact, we should now be ready for the establishment of a federal Iraq. Under the circumstances we face now, the alternative to a federal state would be yet another dictatorship. If we continue to pursue our past Iraq policy, we’ll lose out.