Garcia: Questioning France's N.A.T.O. Alliance Membership Commitment Is An Indication Of Ill Will

ANKARA - French Ambassador in Ankara Bernard Garcia said on Wednesday that questioning France's NATO Alliance membership commitment could only be an ignorance or indication of ill will.
Garcia, who held a news conference in the Embassy Building, underlined that France respected to its commitments stemming from NATO and the U.N. agreements, stressing that questioning France's NATO Alliance membership commitment could only be ignorance or an indication of ill will.''
Recalling that France participated in various operations of NATO, Garcia said France was the country which participated in NATO operations with the highest number of soldiers.
Stating that main topic of ongoing arguments was not protection of Turkey which is not already under threat, Garcia said it was carried out within the scope of the assumption of Baghdad's possible retaliation on Turkish territories in case it participates in any possible operation against Iraq. ''In other words,'' Garcia said Turkey demands protection assurance from NATO before it takes its place near the United States against Iraq.
Garcia said the main discussion was not solidarity with Turkey, stressing that there was already such solidarity with Turkey. He said it should be understood that NATO's expending direct or indirect support to Iraqi operation was the main topic of discussion.
Garcia stated that Germany, France and Belgium, which did not find the current conditions as adequate for usage of force assumed a logical attitude in rejecting to give confirmation to some measures sole reason of which was preparations of an ally country for a military operation.
Garcia said most of the required measures could be taken through bilateral arrangements without feeling a need for NATO, stating that the view that this discussion decreased credibility of NATO was regretful. Garcia said the countries, which brought an operation against Iraq onto agenda of the Alliance were responsible for this although they knew that allies could not agree on it. He said those countries could not wait for evaluation of France for the resolution that was issued by the U.N. Security Council, stressing that he particularly directed this statement to Turkey.
Garcia said it was time to focus on solution of the problem through peaceful means.
Garcia said on that there was no problem in Turkish-French cooperation, stating that French President Jacques Chirac would call President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on the phone to talk to him.
Garcia pointed out that Ankara and Paris were in close cooperation regarding Iraqi issue, and agreed on disarmament of Iraq through peaceful methods.
Garcia said it was not right to send a negative signal to Iraq through NATO when there was still a possibility to disarm this country. Garcia stressed that there was still possibility for a peaceful solution.
Stressing that whatever the new proposal of the NATO Secretary General would be, Garcia said it should reconcile with the French attitude, and yet noted that they were not in a process at the time being to take a position of war.
Recalling that France wanted to wait for the report of the weapons inspectors which would be presented to the United Nations on February 14, Garcia said meanwhile, they would continue to make peaceful proposals.
Stating that Turkey itself had said there was not an open threat from Iraq to itself during the discussions within the scope of NATO, Garcia said it was early to operate Article 4 to this end.
Garcia said they excluded war option from hypotheses, adding that Turkey also had said peaceful ways had not yet been exhausted.
Garcia said demands of Turkey and the United States within the scope of NATO were very early, stressing that the measures that were demanded were in technical level and that it was unnecessary to announce all those to the press loudly. He said those issues could have been limited within the talks in NATO as peaceful ways had not been exhausted.
Garcia said France would rush to the help of Turkey before anybody in case Turkey faced with an open threat.
Garcia criticized the statements of the U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld against France and said, ''I think insulting is an indication of weakness''. He said that France had an important share in U.S.'s gaining its independence.