Bayatli: Peace Won't Come If Turkmens Are Ignored

SELAHADDIN - Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) Executive Board member Aydin Bayatli said on Thursday that Iraqi Turkmens constituted an essential factor in the region, adding, ''peace won't come and success won't be achieved if Turkmens are ignored.''
Speaking to Turkish reporters, Bayatli said that Iraq needed rebuilding but this was possible through unity and solidarity, stressing as the ITF, they had been defending Iraq's territorial integrity for years.
Noting that peace and prosperity could come to Iraq only through settlement of pluralist parliamentary system under Iraq's territorial integrity, Bayatli said several problems might occur in the administration after Saddam, and they were trying to do their utmost to prevent it.
Replying to a question, Bayatli said arrival of foreign forces in the region was not the opposition groups' mistake, adding that foreign forces had come to Iraq due to torture, assimilation and discrimination imposed by Saddam regime on Iraqi people.
Stressing that he believed Turkish and U.S. forces would stay in Iraq temporarily but Saddam could not be expelled without those forces, Bayatli said, ''we absolutely need these forces until establishment of a democratic administration after Saddam regime. Only Iraqi people will say the last word.''
(MS-AÖ) 27.02.2003