Turkish General Staff Says They Are Monitoring Moves Aiming To Change Demographic Structure Of Kirkuk

ANKARA - Gen. Ilker Basbug, Turkish Deputy Chief of General Staff, said on Monday that the Turkish military was monitoring the moves aiming to change the demographic structure of Kirkuk.
Basbug in a press briefing today in Ankara said that Turkey was against such a change, and expressed their concern that Kurds might have exploit the situation. Gen. Basbug also reminded that the census planned to be held in Iraq in October of 2004 was cancelled, and went on: ''We think that it was cancelled because the required atmosphere for a healthy census has not been created, and because some groups might have thought that they could not get the result they wanted from the census. An election is planned to be held (in Iraq) in January 2005, but it may also be delayed to a later date.''
''This election is important since the parliament to be formed (after it) will prepare the new constitution of Iraq. U.S. and Iraqi authorities have stated that elections may not be held in some places where security can't be assured. We also think that elections may be prevented deliberately in some regions,'' Basbug said.
Referring to restructuring of Iraqi security forces, Basbug said, ''Iraqi security forces, comprised of 340,000 personnel, is planned to become operational in March 2005. We believe that ethnic groups should be represented in line with their population in this force. So, we still have some concerns (over this matter). Some elements like the peshmerga force have not been disarmed yet, although it is foreseen in the interim constitution.''
Noting that a NATO coordination team, including two Turkish officers, were serving in Baghdad in order to instruct the Iraqi security forces, Basbug said, ''regarding the situation of the coalition and stability force, we can say 155,000 personnel from 29 countries are still stationed in Iraq. 135,000 of this force is comprised of U.S. personnel. Some countries have withdrawn their soldiers from Iraq recently, while we know that some of them think of withdrawing their troops after the elections.''
On the other hand, Basbug denied claims of Greece that Turkey had increased its flights over the Aegean Sea, and said that the mentioned flights were regular training flights of the Turkish Air Forces.
Basbug also stated that flights of Greek jets over the Aegean were more than those of Turkish jets.
(BRC-ULG) 02.11.2004