VILNIUS - Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Saturday that force should be used carefully in Iraq.
Gul held a press conference in Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
Noting that problems continued in Iraq, Gul said that Iraq was most important matter for everybody at the moment.
``But, force should be used carefully. Coalition forces, which are reluctant when using force against the terrorist in the north (of Iraq), can`t stage operations, targeting at terrorists or insurgents among civilian people, without guarding the civilians,`` Gul said.
Gul noted that incidents in Iraq spread to Tal Afar two days ago, and they had seen that the nature of events had changed. He expressed concerns over these developments.
Stating that Ankara had contacted Baghdad and Washington, Gul said that Turkey had warned U.S. forces and officials that the operation should not harm people, spread to regions close to Turkish border, and the operation should be staged very carefully.
Gul said that he spoke to U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell on the phone yesterday (Friday) night, and expressed his concerns and uneasiness about the recent developments in Iraq, and stated that this should be ended as soon as possible.
Any unfavorable incident in Turkey`s neighbors naturally concerned Turkey, Gul stated.
Gul said that restoring stability in Iraq as soon as possible was important, and went on saying, ``but, when these incidents start to occur in regions close to us (our country) and affect our relatives there negatively, our concerns have increased. Therefore, we are closely following the developments. And, we hope the operations will continue without harming the civilian people there.``
``I hope Iraq will reach stability in the possible shortest time. And, all Iraqi people, including Arabs, Kurds, Turks and even the non-Muslim people living there, will reach their normal life in peace,`` Gul stated.
Answering a question, Gul said that there were not any Turkmens among the insurgents.
Gul stated that Turkmens were exerting efforts like other Iraqi citizens to assure peace and stability in Iraq as soon as possible, and to hold elections in January 2005, as foreseen.
When he was recalled about the press reporters that Habib Aktas, a terrorist who was involved in last year`s bomb attacks in Istanbul, was killed in Iraq, Gul said, ``it is true that there are such press reports. But, we need some time to say whether they are hundred percent accurate.``
(BRC) 11.09.2004