MILLIYET- Columnist Fikret Bila comments on the stances of Turkey and the US concerning the legal status of soldiers coming from the US. A summary of his column is as follows:
US military officials due to inspect Turkish airbases have been unable to start their work because certain legal issues remain unresolved. Ankara is being insistent that nearly 150 US soldiers given this task should be subject to Turkish law. The General Staff has laid out the case on this issue to Parliament. Washington was also told through the Foreign Ministry and Parliament about the rules applying to these soldiers. Now Turkey is waiting for the US to answer its proposal. Is the law to which US soldiers are subject such an important issue? Our military’s answer to this question is as follows: ‘Of course 150 people aren’t so very important per se. In a way, they can be controlled. However, the law these soldiers will be subject to will also apply to the many other US soldiers in the pipeline. If Turkey agrees and thousands of US soldiers come to Turkey, they will be subject to this law as well. Therefore the US doesn’t want to immediately accept Ankara’s proposal.’ The US is requesting that the soldiers it sends be subject to NATO law. However, the General Staff replied that the US soldiers won’t be here on NATO business. This shows that the problem isn’t just 150 soldiers sent to do inspections, but rather thousands of soldiers that the US wants to deploy here en route to northern Iraq. The legal work carried out by the General Staff and the above examples demonstrate why Ankara is being insistent on this issue.
With the escalation of the Iraq situation, the Foreign Ministry and General Staff have been doing a great deal of legal work and examining many contingencies. For example, a 1926 agreement covering Turkey’s rights to Iraqi petroleum, subsequent developments, the legal situation of Turkmens in Iraq, the Turkmens’ rights and ways to protect them have all been examined. For example, Turkey also reviewed the declaration given by Iraq to the United Nations in 1932 when Iraq’s British mandate ended and it joined the UN. In this declaration, Iraq states that the rights of Kurds and Turkmens will be protected. Ankara also considers this declaration important as a document showing that Kurds and Turkmens have equal rights. It asks, ‘If Iraq’s integrity can’t be protected and its status changes during the operation, what will happen to the Turkmens and their rights? Who will protect and safeguard them?’ Ankara believes it important that Iraq’s territorial integrity should be protected and a strong central government established in Baghdad. It expresses this wish constantly, at all levels and platforms. It finds it too important for the Turkmens’ and Turkey’s future and security that Iraq should remain intact.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION