Ecevit: Afghan Army Should Be Established First Of All

ANKARA, March 25 (A.A) - Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Monday that, ''in my opinion, a national Afghan army should be set up first of all.''
Ecevit left for Bucharest to participate in the summit meeting of the heads of states and governments of NATO candidate countries held by ''Vilnius-10 Group'' comprised of Albania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.
Ecevit visits this country as the guest of Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase.
Ecevit responded to the questions of reporters in Ankara's Esenboga Airport before his departure.
When asked about the stage of the developments regarding transfer of International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) command to Turkey, Ecevit said the talks continued as far as he was informed.
''As you know, Turkey put forward some rightful demands regarding this assignment which it would undertake in Afghanistan. Discussions and talks continue on the issue. There is nothing negative at the moment,'' Ecevit said.
When a journalist said, ''there are some concerns that Turkey's taking over the command of ISAF would create serious risk for Turkey due to the uncertainities in Afghanistan,'' and asked if he shared the concerns, Ecevit said, ''of course we should focus on these concerns. In my opinion, establishment of a national Afghan army is necessary to cover a more comprehensive approach. Afghan soldiers should be assigned there. Each country can only be protected with its own soldiers. To this end, I think the things we would fulfill there should be to contribute rapidly to the establishment of national army. I say rapidly, but this process can not be completed in a short time. As you know, Mr. Karzai will visit Ankara this week. We will discuss the security problem primarily. We will also discuss the army problem.''
When asked if the issue which the discussions continued was the financial aid, Ecevit said, ''I can't know'' and stressed that all the issues were under discussion.
''Of course this has costs. Our friends already know that Turkey would not be able to meet the expenses by herself. Some technical details are under discussion, particularly the field of assignment of Kabul. All those are sensitive issues,'' Ecevit said.
When a reporter said, ''it had been said that Turkey might have been extended some assistance if it had undertaken command of peace force in Afghanistan. How much of this assistance will come to Turkey,'' Ecevit said that these issues were being debated.
Ecevit noted that Turkey would face some costs if it undertook security responsibility and said, ''we are debating possibilities that can be provided. Of course, the United States cannot give a decision alone.''
When a reporter said, ''you mentioned 228 million U.S. dollars. Will all this amount be given to Turkey'', Ecevit said, ''this issue cannot be understood. As Mr.Cheney had said 200 million U.S. dollars will be given to Turkey and also Turkey will be extended 28 million U.S. dollars. That 28 million U.S. dollars will be related with the costs of the units. But, he did not say anything definite about 200 million... But, he definitely announced that it would be given to Turkey.''
When a reporter noted that some foreign news agencies ''transmitted and published news items that Turkey staged cross-border operation in Northern Iraq'', Ecevit said, ''I have not heard such thing. If it was accurate, I would be informed.''
When a reporter said, ''Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said that the capital punishment can be abolished in the long term within three years. It is said that the Prime Ministry has applied to the Council of State about this issue. What is the recent situation related with capital punishment,'' Ecevit said, ''no, there is not anything new. As you know, we have not reached a full consensus. I do not know what Turk mentioned. I will learn when I meet him.''
When a reporter said that there was some works to reflect the rise in salaries to the civil servants working for over 25 years and asked if the applications for the cancellation of equal salary decree made to the Council of State were effective in this initiative or if this initiative was among the commitments made to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Prime Minister Ecevit said, ''there are, of course, some difficulties. However, we are expending efforts to remove lack of balance in salaries, and to increase insufficient salaries of civil servants. Some decisions are being taken and put into practice step by step. It is not easy to solve all problems suddenly,'' he said.
Referring to his visit to Romania, Prime Minister Ecevit said, ''the summit meeting aims at exchanging views on developments in NATO's expansion and contributions of candidate countries to NATO in the new atmosphere of threat in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001.''
Ecevit told reporters that he would meet with President Ion Iliescu of Romania and Prime Minister Adrian Nastase separately.
He added that he would return to Turkey late in the evening after wrapping up his contacts in Romania.