MILLIYET- Columnist Derya Sazak comments on Turkey’s stance on the Iraq crisis. A summary of his column is as follows:
Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc did the right thing by recently disclosing written reports of the 1991 Gulf War. When we look at these reports we see that similar parliamentary discussions were held in 1990 when Iraq occupied Kuwait. At that time, Turgut Ozal was the president and opposition leaders were Erdal Inonu and Suleyman Demirel. The opposition tried hard to curb Ozal’s ambition to join the Gulf War.
‘Let’s recall the devastating results of the World War I for our country!,” said Inonu. “We joined that war with our good intentions. However the results were not good. Today, I see similar developments. People assume that when we attack Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein regime, new regime will be an ally to Turkey. However, these assumptions are very likely to fail. We can’t risk our soldiers, our sons for such an unclear scenario. Meanwhile, Suleyman Demirel also stressed that Turkey should not allow its soldiers to die in northern Iraq.
It seems that Saddam Hussein will not give up easily. What happens if this war turns out to be another Vietnam War? Let me put it this way, Turkey should never send its soldiers abroad!
As a matter of fact, we don’t know what the United Nations Security Council will decide on the issue. We can’t make any final decision without waiting another UN Resolution! Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members should recall the past developments and take these facts into consideration!
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION