ANKARA - Justice Minister and Government Spokesman Cemil Cicek said on Wednesday that the government would submit a motion to the parliament according to Article 92 of the Constitution, stressing that the motion was related to sending of Turkish soldiers abroad and deployment of foreign soldiers in Turkey.
Speaking to reporters after two hours following the end of the council of ministers meeting, Cicek said that the motion had two elements:''one of them is Turkey's sending soldiers to foreign countries and the second one is deployment of foreign soldiers in Turkey and their transit passage from Turkey.''
Cicek noted that the government would submit only one motion to the parliament, pointing out that a new element about transit passage of American aircraft from Turkey was added to the motion. Cicek said negotiations on that issue continued.
Cicek said that the world and the country went through a sensitive period.
Noting that the cabinet took up the Iraqi issue, Cicek said ''the efforts launched by Turkey to date have to be remembered. Both the 58th and the 59th governments favoured peace in the region since the Iraqi crisis started to escalate and launched efforts for installation of peace. The government took many initiatives at the level of regional countries, EU countries and the U.S. Foreign Minister Gul, who was the former prime minister, visited the capitals of leading countries of the Arab League for peaceful solution of the issue and asked them to contribute to peaceful solution of the problem. Later a meeting was held in Istanbul...However these initiatives didn't give a positive result.''
Noting that the issue was also taken up in the U.N., but the process came to a halt in the beginning of the week, Cicek said ''war seems to be inevitable.''
Cicek said that Turkey has come to a new decision stage as a requirement of its traditional policy, as an important country in the region and as no result was taken from peace initiatives; in order to protect rights of people in the region and to protect its interests. ''No body can say that Turkey didn't launch efforts for peace,'' he said. ''Wishing for peace is a different thing than ensuring the peace. We always wished for peace, but we could not have the opportunity to prevent the escalation of the crisis to this level,'' he said.
Turkey was in a position to take a different decision as the U.N. Security Council could not find a peaceful solution to the problem, Cicek said adding the government contacted with the concerned units of the state and discussed the issue with them while taking its decision.
Cicek said that Turkey had to make cooperation with the U.S. to protect its rights and interests as a result of the importance it attributed to friendship and cooperation with the U.S., adding ''the government will submit a motion to the parliament according to Article 92 of the Constitution. The motion has two elements:one of them is Turkey's sending soldiers to foreign countries and the second one is deployment of foreign soldiers in Turkey. The negotiations on this issue continue. Yesterday the U.S. contacted with our Foreign Minister for two times. Turkey negotiated the issue of giving permission to transit passage of American planes from Turkey -overflights-. Turkey has given a positive response to this request. Yet this response necessitates the adoption of a decision in the parliament to get the legal basis...There is a new U.S. demand from us this evening. Negotiations are underway, but we are sending the motion.''
Cicek said negotiations continued and if needed other statements would later be issued.
Responding to questions of journalists, Cicek said that only one motion would be sent to the parliament. When asked if there was a difference between the motion which was rejected in the parliament last time and the new motion and if there was a change in the number of soldiers, Cicek said the issue was not related to number of soldiers.
''When will you send the motion to the parliament?'' asked journalists to Cicek who said that ''probably today, there is not much time left. Tomorrow at the latest. There is no disagreement about this issue.''
''When will it be voted?'' asked reporters to Cicek who said ''the voting can take place the same day, there is no problem with the voting. If the motion is completed today, we will send it to parliament today. The thing that matters is to send the motion to the parliament. Thus we end any doubt or uncertainty, if there is one.''
Cicek added that the issues would come clear after the end of the negotiations, noting he would respond to all questions after that.

(ÖS) 19.03.2003