ANKARA - Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul left on Saturday for Kuwait to attend the meeting of neighbor countries to Iraq.
Prior to his departure, Gul told reporters that the meeting to be held in Kuwait had differences when compared with previous meetings.
Gul said that Iraq would attend the meeting to start later in the day for the first time and also the United Nations (U.N.) would send a representative to the meeting for the first time.
Neighbor countries to Iraq convened under umbrellas of only the U.N. and Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) so far, Gul noted.
Stating that feeling of protecting their own region was not developed in those countries, Gul stressed importance to the fact that those countries met for five times in one year.
Gul stated that not only the possible effects of negative developments in Iraq on regional countries but also Iraq's reconstruction, settlement of peace in Iraq as soon as possible and contributions of regional countries would be taken up in today's meeting.
He would hold bilateral meetings in Kuwait, Gul said.
Asked if Turkey would express its uneasiness about efforts to form an ethnic federation in Iraq in the meeting, Gul said that the issue was taken up in former meetings.
Gul said, ''finding a common solution to Iraq altogether is on our agenda not to express uneasiness or objections.''
A new stage had started in meetings, Gul noted.
Gul pointed out that regional countries would start discussing possible assistance to Iraq in the meeting.
Iraq's territorial integrity and use of resources by all Iraqi people were among issues which everybody stressed, Gul said.
Gul drew attention to importance of settlement of peace in Iraq as soon as possible.
''Many Iraqis have started to lose their lives in recent terrorist attacks which were staged in Iraq in a level which we can even call internal conflicts,'' Gul said.
When he was recalled about statements of some Kurdish groups in north of Iraq that Turkish soldiers should withdraw from region, Gul said that everybody knew how Turkish soldiers went there.
Gul said, ''when their mission ends there, that is when Iraq totally rules over its own territories and has the power to prevent presence of illegal and terrorist groups in its territory, we don't want our soldiers to continue to stay there. But, it is obvious that there is a temporary process in Iraq at the moment.''
Recalling that Turkey had protected Kurds so far, Gul said that it would exert every kind of effort to ensure them to be in peace there.
Gul said, ''but, they should know that Turkey is always a friendly country and everybody always needs Turkey.
Those who were staging terrorist attacks against Turkey should not be permitted to exist in the region, Gul stressed.
(BRC-AY) 14.02.2004