Three Reasons For Turkey To Fire Its Weapons In Iraq

STAR- Columnist Zeynep Gurcanli comments on Turkey’s stance on the Iraq crisis. A summary of her column is as follows:
Negotiations on the Iraq crisis between Turkey and the United States are still continuing although the Turkish Parliament recently rejected a proposal authorizing US troops to be stationed at Turkey’s military facilities. In fact, recent provocative protests of Kurdish groups in northern Iraq against Turkey changed the atmosphere of these negotiations.
Last week, the conditions for Turkey’s entrance into northern Iraq were clarified during the negotiations between the two countries. First condition is that Turkish Army will enter the region to provide Iraqi people humanitarian aid, and will not fire its weapons unless it is inevitable to do so.
Turkey is fearful of possible conflicts with Kurdish groups or even US troops in the region. That’s why Turkish Army will definitely act very carefully.
However, there are a number of incidents which are likely to occur which would force Turkey to use its weapons. Here are these three reasons: - If Kurdish groups attack ethnic Turkmen groups in the region, - If Kurdish groups attempt to establish an independent Kurdish state in the region, taking advantage of the turmoil due to a war, Again, if Kurdish groups attempt to occupy the cities of strategically important Mosul and oil-rich Kirkuk.
Iraqi Turkmen Front recently sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan indicating that Iraqi Turkmen groups currently face with a serious threat due to a looming war.
The Bush administration has accepted Turkey’s requests and guaranteed that the Turkish Army will not come face to face with the US troops if the above-mentioned conditions emerge. However, the US also set out a condition of its own in return for Turkey’s requests. The Bush administration wants Turkey to change its Iraq policy insisting that any administrative structure other than a federation is unacceptable. The US requests Turkey to count on the Bush administration considering the political restructuring of post-Saddam period. In fact, the US might accept any administrative solution which would keep Iraq’s territorial integrity.
I believe that we should expect that another proposal authorizing US troops to be deployed in Turkey would be presented to the Parliament this week.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION