ANKARA - Justice Minister and Government Spokesman Cemil Cicek said on Monday, ''when the peace alternative was destroyed in Iraq, our government has begun expending efforts to protect interests and security of Turkey. Everybody should know very well that we were not an opportunist while doing this. We did not have imperialistic intentions. We did not look for our welfare and interests in the blood and tears of other nations.''
Addressing journalists following the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Cicek said, ''the Iraq issue was high on agenda of the meeting. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul informed the Council of Ministers on recent developments in Iraq. Twelve days have elapsed since beginning of the war in Iraq. Developments of these 12 days are extremely distressing for all of us. It is not known how long this war will last.''
''As Turkey and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, we have been expending efforts for two things since the beginning of tension: The first was to settle peace. And the second is to provide security of our country and protect interests of our nation in case of a failure in settling peace,'' he emphasized.
''Unfortunately, it was not possible to provide peace. The international institutions, including the U.N. who were assigned to provide peace, were not successful. When the peace alternative was removed, we exerted efforts to provide the second target, to protect interests of our country, and to provide the security of our country. Everybody should know very well that we were not an opportunist while doing this. We did not have imperialistic intentions. We did not look for our welfare and interests in the blood and tears of other nations. Neither our history, our belief nor the policy we have covered so far are convenient for this. We are one of the countries that has a clean register on this issue. If there are people who has something to say to Turkey in this respect, they should first of all understand this fact,'' Cicek stated.
Cicek said Turkey's policy pertaining to Iraq and its expectation was peace, tranquility and stability in the region.
Cicek said, ''we don't want bloodshed there because all the people living there are our brothers, the people which fate separated from us. We want Iraq's richness to be the richness of Iraqi people. We don't want terrorism to get out of control and spread by finding a vacuum. We want everything for humanitarian aims. We do everything for our security and on behalf of humanitarian values. Turkey has full determination and preparation for this second target.''
Cicek said, ''we do this in cooperation with the United States, which is our ally, and which we attribute importance to 50-year old friendship. We hold reciprocal consultations and we will do. As rightfulness, legality, and necessity of this war are being discussed in the world, Turkey's friendly approach and efforts should be understood better and evaluated well. In the same way, there was not any positive evaluation in domestic media in this respect, and several news reports appeared in foreign media, particularly in the media of the United States, that there was injustice toward Turkey. The government started to carry out a multilateral study to better convey our interlocutors and neighbors the positive contributions of Turkey in this process. This issue is being carried out under the coordination of Foreign Ministry.''
Cicek said, ''the second issue, which was taken up during today's meeting of the Council of Ministers, was economic developments. Turkish economy has already been experiencing a difficult period. The Iraq crisis has made this process more negative. We have repaid more than 20 billion U.S. dollars in the first three months of this year.''
''During today's meeting, it was stressed that economic program and privatization program should be implemented under the budget of year 2003,'' he said.
Cicek added, ''the Council of Ministers will convene at 6.00 p.m. on Saturday to take up public administration reform.''
(UK-AY-AÖ) 31.03.2003