DAVOS - Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Saturday, ''a possible war in Iraq has extremely negative impacts on Turkey. Therefore, Turkish people and regional nations are opposed to war.''
Prime Minister Gul who is currently in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum, held a press conference on ''Turkey's Economic Recovery''.
Responding a question about impacts of a possible war in Iraq on Turkish economy, Prime Minister Gul said, ''war is not a desirable development whatever its reasons are. One of these reasons is economy. Some people can benefit from such a war. However, a possible war in Iraq has extremely negative impacts on Turkey. Therefore, Turkish people and regional nations are opposed to war. Foreign ministers of regional countries came together at the meeting held in Istanbul, and assessed all possibilities to settle peace. Of course, war is not the preference of Turkey. Regional countries have some responsibilities to this end. Also, Iraq has some responsibilities.''
When asked whether or not the United States would make big investments in Turkey during a possible war in Iraq, Prime Minister Gul said, ''about economic losses, consultations between the Treasury Undersecretariat and the U.S. government have been continuing. Economic losses, political burdens and refugees are consequences of a possible war. We cannot stop refugees in our borders. We will have to take care of these refugees for maybe months or years.''
Referring to commercial relations between Turkey and Iraq, Prime Minister Gul said, ''10 thousand trucks cross the border between Turkey and Iraq perpetually. There are some activities to create employment. All these can come to an end just in one night. We are talking about very important economic activities. Turkish contractors have important investments in neighboring countries. We will lose all of them in case of a war. Therefore, some business circles do not want war.''
''There are also some other estimates, of course. It is estimated that direct or indirect losses might be from 25 billion up to 100 billion U.S. dollars. We lose business while burden increases,'' he said.
Replying a question which said, ''is there any definite figure set by analyses? Turkey may be obliged to send troops to Iraq...Do you consider this a possibility?'' Gul said, ''the government's duty is to prepare Turkey against every condition. We are one of the neighboring countries to Iraq. We have a Kuwait experience and we have to be careful. We are sincerely working for peace. We are in favor of finding a solution without resorting to violence. We will do everything to this end.''
''I have given the start for several initiatives. Firstly I visited regional countries and held meetings. We decided to act together. Also Iraq has responsibilities, of course. However, as the regional countries, we have several responsibilities and we have the intention to stop war. We are in favor of finding a solution without resorting to violence,'' Gul said.
''The thing we pay careful attention is that we want protection of Iraq's territorial integrity and continuation of its political unity. In the joint declaration of the meeting in Istanbul, we made a call to Iraq. In return for this, we want to take Iraq's borders under guarantee. We want protection of Iraq in the region. If a peaceful solution can't be found and if a war starts out of our control, then we evaluate some things, of course,'' he said.
Meanwhile, replying a question, State Minister Ali Babacan who also attended the press conference said that the government was following an active method for a peaceful solution but they should get prepared against the worst scenarios.
Noting that talks with the U.S. government had been continuing for a month, Babacan said, ''negative impacts of such an operation are being discussed. Several analyses were carried out. We are analyzing all possible impacts. We are trying to set a joint vision with the United States.''
''This aid package should actually be flexible and appropriate to the situation. There are some uncertain things about Iraq issue. We can't put forward some fixed numbers and figures so we adopted a flexible understanding,'' Babacan added.