What Will The Decision Be?

BY OKTAY EKSI
HURRIYET- A meeting billed as a possible turning point in Turkey's fight against terrorism will be held today in Ankara. Among the participants will be Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Interior Minister Osman Gunes, Land Forces Commander Gen. Ilker Basbug, Gendarmerie General Commander Gen. Isik Koºaner and other concerned officials. Yesterday in Hurriyet, Fatih Cekirge wrote that Gul had talked with the General Staff about all sorts of scenarios and evaluated a wide range of possibilities and plans with Chief of Staff Buyukanit, including a possible split-up of Iraq. This means that Parliament is about to make an important decision. At this point, it would be useful to consider the situation we are facing.

After the attack on a group of gendarmes in Pulumur, Tunceli last weekend, more killings of Turkish soldiers have followed in quick succession. Now the Turkish people are quite angry, because nobody takes Erdogan seriously any more after all his statements that Turkey's patience has run out and his warnings to the US. On the other hand, the military has made all necessary preparations and is now waiting for an order to enter northern Iraq. The funerals of slain Turkish soldiers have become forums for criticizing not the terrorist PKK, but Parliament. Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener, who was at a funeral in Ankara yesterday and earlier decided not to run reelection next month, was considered to be protesting Parliament and thus applauded by the people. On the other hand, Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc tried to attend the funeral in Manisa of Lt. Col. Melih Gulova but had to leave the ceremony due to an uproar. Clearly, Turkey has no time to lose. Seeing that Parliament has considered everything, it should decide on the best plan and implement it.

Let me say this: The best solution would be a military operation which would enable control of the Turkish-Iraqi border and remain in force until the problem is solved. Anything more than this would create problems. However, a `limited' operation would be useful to the extent that it could create the infrastructure for a main solution. The social, political and cultural dimensions of the main solution are another issue. First and as a priority, the problem's security dimension should be reviewed again. For many years we have seen that even if all our privates had gotten commando training, regular forces can't be as swift as the bandit killers who have been trained as guerillas. So certain forces who have received the same training and who use the same tactics are needed. This was even tested in 1992-96. Special operation units were established, and the soldiers were organized in line with this, and very good results followed. But the officials who were leading them couldn't keep these forces disciplined. Finally the units were dissolved, as if it was a mistake to establish a special operations group. Now we're paying the price for our mistake through all these funerals for slain Turkish soldiers.