ANKARA - Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said on Tuesday that negotiation process continued between Turkey and the United States and added that a bottleneck was out of question.
Answering questions of reporters before Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting, Yakis said that they, as Turkish side, was working on how much donation and how much loan would be given to Turkey without determining the amount of money at negotiations with U.S. officials.
Yakis said, ''loan has several formulas. For example, it won't be paid for 4 years and it will be paid back in 10 years. If so, definite amount of donation is turned into loan by multiplying it by 6. If there are other formulas, it should be multiplied by another denominator. Turkey has flexibility on the issue.''
Question: What is bottleneck?
Yakis: There is not any bottleneck. Every side says something at negotiation process. They say something and we say something too. This negotiation process continues.
Question: Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said that ''we have concerns.''
Yakis: There are several components. How will we follow developments in Northern Iraq? What will our cooperation be there? How will structure of Iraq will be after an operation? Are there any cooperation possibilities? There are many issues.
Question: Are problems political?
Yakis: Views on political, military and economic issues cannot be the same.
Question: What things were included in the final demand letter which was sent through Pearson?
Yakis: It was not a demand letter. This is a process. Both sides put forth their views in that process. The other side is studying those views. This is a consultation process.
Question: What is the number of soldiers the U.S. wants to send to Turkey, and why does Turkey reject that?
Yakýs: There is nothing that we reject, and you must ask about the number of soldiers to military officials. This is a process.
Question: When is the process foreseen to be completed?
Yakýs: Whenever the agreement is reached...
Question: Greek Prime Minister Simitis issued a statement about the motion in Brussels.
Yakýs: The motion can be submitted to the parliament if an agreement is reached.
Question: Do you expect reaching an agreement?
Yakýs: We need an agreement which constitutes the basis of our presenting the motion.
Question: We asked U.S. for giving us certain guarantees in written form.
Yakýs: When we say 'written', we want to see at least the points on which we have reached agreement... As the issue is very detailed, the document is long in respect of military, political and economic issues. We can call it a package. We must write down the things on which we have reached agreement in order to see how we reached agreement and on which issues. We are not signing a treaty.
Question: Why does the U.S. side oppose that?
Yakýs: It does not, the document is being written down. It is very natural to write the things down as it is a very comprehensive issue and as this is necessary for not forgetting in time how we reached that compromise.
Question: Did the U.S. insist on Turkey's adopting the motion until Feb 21?
Yakýs: No, they insisted on Feb. 18, we explained why that date was difficult for us. They explained us why Feb. 18 was important for them. We noted it down. We discussed it with concerned officials. The process continues.
Question: Did everything finish now as the motion was not sent to the parliament today? Won't the northern front be opened?
Yakýs: We must ask it to Americans.
Question: I ask the question in Turkey's point of view?
Yakýs: They told us that Feb. 18 was very important for them, but they didn't tell that ''if it is not adopted until midnight on Feb. 18, if you submit it at 00.05, we can't accept it.''
(EÖ-ÖS-AÖ) 18.02.2003