Gul: We Attribute Great Importance To The U.N. Resolutions

ANKARA - Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Monday that Turkey attributed great importance to the United Nations (U.N.) resolutions regarded with whether or not they considered a second U.N. resolution was necessary to deploy soldiers in Turkey. He said, ''we continuously say that the U.N. was one of the most important places of the international legitimacy. In this respect, this will be a very important decision. We are following this.''
Prime Minister Gul responded to the questions in CNN Turk.
Responding to a question about the recent situation regarding possible Iraqi war, Gul said, ''there is still light for peace.''
Noting that he earlier said they would do their best to strengthen this light as long as it continued, Gul said they did their best. Gul said the entire world started to launch actions to prevent this crisis and war, noting that Turkey also exerted efforts in this respect.
Gul, who mentioned the phone call he made with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day, said they exchanged information about their efforts. Gul said both Turkey and Russia were insistent on providing peace in Iraq, and noted that they talked about the steps that should be taken.
Gul said, ''as we know Putin will go to Germany today and France on Tuesday. He will give information to us following his meeting with Chirac. Everybody has an extraordinary effort to end this crisis without war.''
When a reporter said ''it is in question to call for authority from the Parliament to deploy foreign soldiers on February 18,'' and asked whether or not this position was preserved, and whether or not the report which the inspectors would present to the U.N. Security Council on February 14 will have any connection with this, Gul said, ''we have underlined and pointed to international legitimacy from the outset. The entire world is underlining this. Of course, the second U.N. resolution is very important. We are following the developments very carefully. Therefore, I told the Iraqi administration that U.N. weapons inspectors would go there on February 8 and suggested it that the inspectors should not be returned with empty hand. And, I said that thus, the report the inspectors would present to the U.N. on February 14 would be a very good report. I suggested that they should be in a full cooperation with the U.N. and they should fully abide by resolution 1441. Therefore, I told them, they should take further steps and they were the party who could avoid that war.''
''To this end, yesterday's meetings in Baghdad were very important. There are positive developments as far as we have seen. How satisfying they are will be revealed by the statement made by the U.N. and the report of the inspectors after they return to New York. We, as well as whole world, follow the developments,'' added Gul.
Asked if they considered necessary a second U.N. resolution to deploy troops in Turkey, Gul said, ''we attribute utmost importance to U.N. resolutions and we continuously say that the U.N. is one of the most important places of international legitimacy. Therefore, it will be a very important decision. We follow them. We hope that reports of the weapons inspectors will be very clear this time and Iraq will say that it fully complies with the resolution 1441.''
Gul went on saying, ''therefore, we still have hope but of course, worst conditions can occur. Countries have to be prepared for the best and worst scenarios and alternatives in such a period. Under the Constitution, the government has to make these preparations. Therefore, when dealing with the best alternatives, we have to take every measure against the worst developments that is a state of war, which may occur outside our will in order to protect our national interests. This is the duty of the government and parliament.''
Article 92 of the Constitution authorized the parliament about such issues, Gul pointed out.
Gul said that they brought one of such issues onto the agenda of parliament last Thursday and the parliament gave that authorization.
''I hope that this decision will be beneficial for ensuring peace. It is important to show that the issue is still serious and will continue to be serious till the very end. Therefore, these days have to be made good use of,'' added Gul.

GUL SAYS THEY ARE TAKING MEASURES AND PREPARING FOR POSSIBILITY OF A WAR IN A NEIGHBORING COUNTRY
Gul said, ''if there is a possibility of a fire in your neighbor, can you sleep comfortably? You can't. You take measures and make preparations to prevent the fire from spreading. You warn your neighbor. This is what we are doing.''
Asked if a positive report of the United Nations (U.N.) on Iraq would affect Turkey's stance, Gul said that such a report would affect not only Turkey's but also whole world's stance.
Gul noted that the United States did not say ''that war should be made in any case'' and said, ''if Iraqi administration sees the course and takes giant steps and it complies with U.N. resolutions by eliminating all the hesitations, I believe that war can be avoided. I still believe that there is such a hope.''
Small steps that were taken sometimes were in vain, Gul said. He stated that this was his concern.
Gul pointed out that Iraq should do everything at a time. ''Doing all these is very easy because, countries that are neighbor of Iraq came together in Istanbul and said that they were guaranteeing Iraq's borders. This is very meaningful.''
Iran-Iraq war erupted due to border discussion, Gul said. He pointed out that one million Muslims died in that war.
Gul said, ''we know what happened in Halapja and Kuwait. Therefore, we have to take them into consideration in a realistic way and take further steps.''
Hans Blix, the head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC) and Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), were respected in Arab countries, Gul noted.
Gul stated that Blix and El Baradei were considered as ''people who would not be influenced by pressure of anybody.'' Therefore, he said, he believed that U.N. reports were important.
When he was reminded about his statement that ''they had done everything they could do'' and that ''they were cooperating with their strategic partner United States'', Gul said that on one hand Turkey continued good relations with its ally United States in field of military, politics and economy and on the other hand, it exerted great efforts to avoid a war.
Gul noted that they conducted open and closed initiatives in that respect and that some of their initiatives became apparent. ''We are telling all the truths and disclosing the facts. Such kinds of facts are not always told in such regimes. Always the positive things are told. People there are our neighbors. The difficulties they would experience will also affect us. To this end we told everything to them,'' Gul said.
Gul said, ''the response we got to Istanbul declaration made us and other countries upset. They considered this declaration as intervention in internal affairs of Iraq. The decisions that had been taken were positive. We will continue to exert efforts till to the end.''
When asked whether or not Turkish soldiers would enter Northern Iraq, Gul said, ''we hope that this problem will be solved without war. Of course it will be out of question for anybody to go anywhere if it is solved without war. But in case if war is in question, Iraq's territorial integrity is very important for us, whatever its regime is. Iraq's territorial integrity is very important because we don't want to see the structuring there which we don't want.''
''Secondly, if such a thing happens, millions of people may come to Turkey. We should take measures for this. We don't want this to happen, so we want to take measures,'' he pointed out.
Gul said, ''we would not be interested in this so much if we were a country in the middle of Europe. However, if there is the possibility to break out war in your neighbor, can you sleep comfortably? You will of course take measures and do your best to prevent spreading of the fire. You will warn your neighbor. That's what we are doing.''
When asked whether or not any agreement was reached with the United States regarding the number of soldiers that would be sent to Northern Iraq, Gul said, ''talks took place, but it is the duty of parliament whether or not to allow in foreign troops.''
Responding to another question, Gul said Turkish soldiers will have the command in case they entered Northern Iraq.
GUL: ''HOW TURKEY PROTECTED WHOLE EUROPE DURING COLD WAR, NOW EUROPE WILL HAVE SOME DUTIES''
Gul who evaluated veto of protection plan for Turkey at NATO Council said that the issue was not over yet.
Gul said that Turkey's power was enough for itself and stated that Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) was one of the most powerful forces of the world.
Stating that developments in the meeting of the NATO Council did not disappoint him, Gul said that gathering of NATO members again was in question.
Gul said that Turkey also contributed to expansion process of NATO and added that it would not finish there.
When asked if Turkish soldiers would enter Northern Iraq under some definite conditions, Gul said that Turkey would not be involved in war even if under the worst conditions and added that Turkish soldier would not fight.
Stressing that Turkish soldiers would only take measures, Gul said that Turkey was a country ''trying hard'' to avoid war not to incite a war.
Gul noted that the government should make a decision about the future of the country by acting in a realistic way.
''Would you like entrance of a few million people in Turkey in one night? Would you like occurrence of a state which we don't want in Northern Iraq? Would you like to see formations which we don't want to see as a result of the division of Iraq? It is the government which will take these measures under the Constitution. It is a very difficult duty. Turkey is taking all these measures. And, I hope there will be no need to take measures tomorrow,'' said Gul.
Gul stated that end of February and beginning of March were the critical time for a possible operation against Iraq.
Serious talks should be made during that time, Gul said.
Gul noted that there were some positive developments in Iraq and that Europe took action again.
The United States was telling that it preferred war, said Gul.
Gul pointed out that he could see that there was light for peace.
Talks on the cost of a possible war continued in a way that they were satisfactory for Turkey, Gul said.
Gul noted that Turkey attributed importance to that issue.
Turkey's economic losses should be overcome in a way, said Gul. ''If you don't take measures at the moment, you will face big loss in the future. These measures should be taken.''
Pointing out that Turkey was under burden of debts, yet that there was not the problem of rolling over debts, Gul said, ''you allocate less money to investments when you have great debts. You decrease the services. You keep primary surplus high and you show your will to pay your debts. Turkey's economy conditions are not good. Yet we have the strength to overcome all those''.
Gul said they did their best not to meet any problems regarding Iraqi issue, and noted that, ''we have mobilized everybody.''
Recalling that deployment of foreign soldiers in Turkey and sending soldiers to Northern Iraq was an issue of the Parliament, Gul said, ''that point has not come yet, and I hope it will not.''
Reiterating that measures should be taken in order not to meet more serious dangers, Gul said, ''defunct President Turgut Ozal told many things during the Gulf War in 1991. There was opposition but no measures were taken. Northern Iraq became a place without any control, and it became a base of the terrorist PKK. Didn't we lose thousands of people? All of us should exert efforts by thinking all those and to prevent occurrence of negative developments. Iraqi people almost exhausted by entering unnecessary wars in 15 years. Iraqi administration should take the most steps for peace.''