ANKARA - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Monday that Turkey's providing military support on restoring stability in Iraq was not related with U.S. loan worth of 8.5 billion dollars and added that Turkey would not hesitate to intervene in case of a threat from Iraq or north of Iraq after Turkey decided to use the loan.
Gul replied to questions, views and criticisms of deputies during debates over 2004 budget of Foreign Ministry.
Noting that they aimed to protect interests and future of country and to contribute to world peace with the foreign policy they followed, Gul said that they sometimes had difficulty, but they now felt more comfortable when compared with previous period and added that political stability and positive developments in economy after November 3 elections had an important contribution to this.
Touching on developments about Iraq, Gul said that Iraq had difficulty in the last 10-15 years and added that Iraq which was rich in the aspects of sources and man power became wretched due to bad governing. Gul emphasized that Turkey was exerting efforts to bring stability to Iraq and establish a democratic order and to protect territorial integrity.
Noting that the bad situation in Iraq would bring harm to Turkey instead of benefit, Gul said that it was impossible to watch developments in Iraq without doing anything and added that if Turkey did not become active, bigger dangers would appear.
Recalling that they took from parliament the authority to send soldiers to Iraq if necessary, not the decision to send soldiers, Gul said that using this authority in every situation was out of question.
Noting that they could send soldiers if conditions to serve Turkey's visions for Iraq appeared, Gul said that they were not under pressure on this issue and the government was also not under pressure. He added that when conditions were fulfilled, the government would use the authority as it had the authority.
Gul said that criticisms that 8.5 billion U.S. dollars of loan to be released by the United States was bound to the condition that Turkey should send soldiers to Iraq and not make any military intervention in north of Iraq were wrong.
Also, the criticisms that those conditions were hid from the public were wrong, Gul noted.
Gul stated that the origin of the mentioned loan was 1 billion U.S. dollars in grants.
Recalling that the donation was included in the additional budget that the U.S. administration demanded from the Congress regarding Iraq issue, Gul stressed that it was the unilateral decision of the United States.
Gul said that a very negative atmosphere had occurred in the United States after Turkish parliament did not adopt the motion on dispatch of Turkish soldiers abroad and deployment of foreign troops in Turkey on March 1. U.S. parliamentarians who defended that donation should not be made, tried to prevent it by motions, Gul noted.
Gul said that those motions were rejected by votes of members of the Congress who took into consideration Turkish-U.S. relations in the long term.
The U.S. Congress granted authorization to the State Department when approving the additional budget, Gul pointed out.
Accordingly, countries which would be given that assistance would not be in an effort to deteriorate Iraq's stability, Gul said.
Gul recalled that that condition was not a secret and it was published in the newspapers.
''Under this authorization, the State Department will determine whether or not the conditions are fulfilled by a note sent to the Congress. The U.S. State Department wrote a note to the Congress regarding Turkey on September 5 that Turkey was fulfilling all those conditions and therefore, loan should be given to Turkey,'' Gul said.
Gul went on saying, ''the world and the United States know that Turkey has military presence in north of Iraq. We are sometimes coordinated there. Under Geneva conventions, the most authorized office there at the moment is the United States, who is in the position of an invader. We are sometimes in cooperation since we have forces there. They know well that we have forces there.''
''We are helping Iraq with humanitarian issues. Turkey has become an artery for aid to Iraq. Thousands of lorries are carrying needs of Iraq every day. Therefore, the decision taken unilaterally by the United States only bind them,'' Gul said.
Gul noted that the loan agreement had a provision saying that ''the loan had nothing to do with Turkey's military support to Iraq's stability'' and it was not secret.
''If we decide to use this loan, we will take action in our own direction. If there is a threat against Turkey from north of Iraq or Iraq in these days, we won't refrain from intervening in the region when necessary since we are given the authority under U.N. agreements,'' Gul said.
Gul added, ''if there is not any threat against us, why should we send soldiers to a country, the territorial integrity of which we want to protect and why should we want to occupy a part of that country? We are defending territorial integrity of Iraq and call on everybody to pay attention to its territorial integrity. Therefore, we don't have any problem about this issue.''
(GC-BRC-AÖ) 03.11.2003