ANKARA - Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said on Sunday that the issue of whether another motion on dispatch of Turkish troops abroad and deployment of foreign troops in Turkey would be sent to the parliament had not become clear yet.
The Parliamentary Planning and Budgetary Commission discussed the Foreign Ministry's budget in 2003, and Yakis responded questions of the commission member MPs about foreign policies.
Responding criticisms about Iraq policy, Yakis said Turkey would not be involved in a war in Iraq, adding, ''there is a state which decided and is seemed to be determined to carry out an intervention in Iraq due to reasons which also we don't think right, and how we can protect our interests against such a situation. This is the thing that we are doing.''
''Several deputies say, 'it is legitimate if there is a U.N. resolution, otherwise any international act or move is not legitimate'. It is very wrong to reach such a conclusion,'' he said.
Stressing that Turkey had done its best to prevent any war, Yakis said that Turkey was taking measures to protect its interests if any war which it couldn't prevent despite all its efforts, started.
''Also after sending soldiers to Iraq, Turkey is taking all measures for return of these soldiers without pulling the trigger,'' he said.
''This is what we all want and desire for. Is it possible? I wish that this would happen like this and they would return. And even we wish that any war would not happen and they would not be obliged to go there. However, there are three reasons for dispatch of Turkish soldiers there. The first one is that 510 thousand refugees came to Turkey in 1991. Among them, there were armed PKK terrorists. Later these terrorists took to the mountains in Turkey. Western countries encouraged Turkey to take those refugees. And when Turkey invited those countries to accept refugees, too, Norway took 17 and Denmark took 32 of them, and they selected them according to color of their hair and eyes. The Turkish people were obliged to supply tents and foodstuffs to the remaining 510 thousand refugees. This time, we don't want to face a similar situation,'' Yakis said.
Stressing that keeping refugees within Iraq before they came to Turkish border was possible only with a great number of military existence, Yakis said, ''for doing this, there is no need to pull the trigger. I hope that this would happen like this. Our soldiers will try to keep refugees within Iraq and reasonable kilometers away from the border.''
Noting that the second reason stemmed from the factor that they did not want occurrence of any development in northern Iraq, which might destroy Iraq's territorial integrity, Yakis said, ''we believe that there would be instability in the region if Iraq's territorial integrity is destroyed. In the beginning, the United States did not attribute importance to this issue as much as Turkey. However, also the United States has started to make same statements as Turkey upon our insistence. Everything may go out of control due to a war that is made by the United States. You cannot always keep incidents under control in warfare. Turkey would want to prevent it if some groups in northern Iraq carry out acts that may destroy Iraq's territorial integrity and if they exert efforts with this purpose. So existence of Turkish soldiers there will be a dissuasive factor.''
Noting that the third reason was the issue of safety of Turkmen in northern Iraq, Yakis said that they attributed same importance to safety of Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds.
(MS) 09.03.2003