The Iraq Issue

BY TAHA AKYOL
MILLIYET- Will the civil war end? Will Iraq disintegrate? A new process is developing which shows that terrorism and Iraq's integrity aren't just `Iraq's domestic affair,' but a problem of the region, and even the world. As we see that neither the Iraqi people nor the US can ensure a solution in Iraq, it's likely that more political factors will get involved in the issue. Now the factor of countries neighboring Iraq is more important than ever before. A common platform is needed for the participation of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Japan. As their role rises, the possibility of Iraq's disintegration will of course fall. The US, which criticized Turkey for sitting at the table with Iran and Syria in January 2003, is now praising Turkey for such a platform including Tehran and Damascus. When I looked at the Milliyet back from Jan. 23, 2003, I saw that the US hadn't attacked Iraq yet and US President George Bush's unforgettable Defense Secretary Ronald Rumsfeld accused the nations of Europe which opposed the war of being `old.' The same day, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul conveyed Turkey's concerns over the invasion to Milliyet, saying that its concerns center on the uncertainties of the post-Saddam era. Unfortunately, this came true. This is Iraq's situation now and there are concerns that almost all the countries in the region could be thrown into years of uncertainty and bloody conflicts. A meeting of countries neighboring Iraq was held in Istanbul in January 2003 in order to convince Saddam Hussein and prevent the war. Iran was at the meeting, and the US was angry that Syria also attended. The other countries there were Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Our columnist Sami Kohen analyzed the meeting in his column and even wrote that it was important that they had come together in Istanbul. Kohen wrote that diplomatic problems cannot be solved even with several meetings and that the process was important.

Four years have passed since then, with so much bloodshed, and then the US accepted Turkey's formula of neighboring countries. Of course, I'm talking about the meeting held over the weekend in Baghdad. In addition to countries neighboring Iraq, the meeting included diplomats from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: the US, Britain, France, Russia and China. The next meeting will be held in Istanbul again! This is one of the successes of four years of Arab world diplomacy by Turkey. Gul was invited to an Arab League meeting, Egypt ended its oil cooperation with the Greek Cypriots, 21 Arab countries have openly supported Turkey's candidacy for a temporary Security Council seat, Turkey has played a role in solving the problem of a lack of meetings between the US and Iran, the value of this process was emphasized during talks between Gul and his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice, Ankara was asked to participate in the process by the European Union, and Turkey reproached them by asking if they had frozen the chapter on `foreign relations' at the request of the Greek Cypriots. I remember Kohen's words. He wrote that diplomatic problems can't be solved in one go. If neighboring countries and these powerful countries were to work together, it would be more effective in making countries at odds sit at the table."