NEVSEHIR - State Minister Tayfun Icli said on Tuesday that a possible U.S. military operation against Iraq would have negative effects especially on the economy of Turkey, adding, ''a fire in one of our neighbors spreads to our country.''
When asked whether or not a U.S. operation against Iraq would affect Turkey, Icli said, ''as Turkey, we don't want a war in Iraq. In line with Ataturk's principle of 'peace at home, peace in the world', Turkey has so far been in favor a region-centered foreign policy. We believe that we should have good neighborly relations. Neighboring nations are friendly nations. However, it is the problem of people of the region if there are some unacceptable changes in the regime in that region. Such problems should be solved by people of that region.''
''Turkish people suffered great losses in the U.S. operation against Iraq in 1991. We suffered almost sixty billion U.S. dollars loss due to stop of trade with our neighboring country in last eleven years. Besides, this operation caused the start of period in which terrorist organizations like PKK, IBDA-C and Hizbullah gave serious damage to Turkey. Thousands of our people were killed and we suffered a 125-150 billion U.S. dollars loss. A fire in one of our neighbors spreads to our country and we suffer serious problems in tourism and employment,'' he added.