NEW YORK - Turkish Ambassador to the U.S. Faruk Logoglu said on Friday that all means have to be tried before waging a war with Iraq, adding that the meeting in Istanbul was held in this framework.
Speaking to the local tv channel WLIW21 in New York, Logoglu gave information about the joint declaration issued after the summit in Istanbul and Turkey's point of view about a possible war.
Upon a question, Logoglu said that the message of Istanbul declaration is very clear and it called Iraq to abide by U.N. Security Council Resolution No. 1441 and to solve the issue peacefully.
When asked if the countries which attended the meeting in Istanbul think whether Iraq cooperates with U.N. or not, Logoglu said ''such an evaluation was not made in the summit, but it called Iraq to make active cooperation with the U.N.''
Logoglu said that the countries came together as they believed that the problem could be solved peacefully within the scope of U.N. Resolution No. 1441.
When asked if these efforts would prevent a war, Logoglu said that ''we should be sure that all other alternatives should be tried before waging a war.'' He stated that this initiative was taken to find other ways of solution than war.
Regarding a question about the contacts of Turkey with the U.S. about the support it will get during a possible war against Iraq, Logoglu said that contacts at various levels were made between Turkey and the U.S. and that there was no political decision taken by the parliament yet about the support to be extended to the U.S., but the two countries continued to work together about this issue.
When asked if Turkey would permit the use of Incirlik base in case of a possible war, Logoglu said that Turkey extended support to the U.S. about this issue in the past, but that the issue of using the base for special purposes was still being discussed.
Logoglu said that Turkey has a very long list of concerns regarding a possible war, adding that the war would negatively affect the economy, financial system, oil prices and tourism in Turkey.
Logoglu said that Turkey favoured the protection of Iraqi territorial integrity.