ANKARA - U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones for European Affairs started holding contacts in Ankara on Monday.
Jones is scheduled to meet with State Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sukru Sina Gurel, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal, and with deputy undersecretaries Ali Tuygan, Baki Ilkin, Alev Kilic, Nabi Sensoy and Akin Alptuna.
After partaking in a luncheon to be hosted in her honor by Ilkin, Jones will come together with General Staff Deputy Chief General Yasar Buyukanit.
She is expected to depart from Ankara on Tuesday morning.
During contacts of Jones, Ankara will explain some of its concerns about a possible military operation against Iraq; that are,
- Oil prices have been increasing continuously,
- Foreign investors can give up their plans in Turkey,
- Touristic facilities will start making new bookings three months later. If these bookings are cancelled, Turkish tourism will suffer a serious loss,
- Domestic economic balances can be damaged.
- Turkey's border trade with neighboring countries can be affected. Such a development will not damage only Turkey, but whole regional countries.''
After conveying all these concrete concerns, Ankara is expected to stress that Turkey's losses in this respect should be compensated.
Ankara will also warn that any operation against Iraq will put the United States into a difficult situation with respect to legitimacy before the United Nations weapon inspectors prepare their report.