BELGRADE - Foreign Minister and deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday that the United States' giving aid of one billion dollars to Turkey conditionally was out of question and emphasized that Turkey had already announced its northern Iraq policy.
Gul who was in Belgrade for the summit meeting of the heads of states and governments of Southeast European Countries Cooperation Process, replied questions of reporters concerning the news that the United States put forward a condition to give the one billion dollars credit that Turkey should not enter northern Iraq.
Noting that there was no such thing as condition and Turkey gave its decision in those issues by itself, Gul recalled that Turkey had earlier announced its northern Iraq policy. He said that if Turkey had not announced that policy earlier, a condition could have come out and he added that Turkey had told its policy beforehand.
Gul said that if a terrorist incident did not occur in northern Iraq and there was not a huge migration, Turkey would not need this. He added that ''if Turkey's concerns do not happen; that is, if it (northern Iraq) does not become a den for terrorists and there will not be a big migration movement, we already have a mutual agreement. But if those concerns happens, we will do what is required.''
Meanwhile, Gul attended foreign ministers meeting with foreign ministers of Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina prior to the summit which would start on Wednesday. Death of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Cincic was taken up in the meeting and full support was given to struggle with organized crimes in Serbia-Montenegro.
Gul also gave information about Turkey's Iraq policy in the meeting. All the ministers attending to the meeting emphasized that there was a chaos in the Balkans a while ago like the Middle East now, but there was stability in the region now.
(GC-AÖ) 09.04.2003