IRAQ: Turkish Troops Face Uncertain Reception

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis by Hilmi Toros

ISTANBUL, Oct 7 2003 (IPS) - Turkey will send about 10,000 peacekeeping troops to Iraq in the face of strong public opposition to the move.

The move is intended to save what Turkey values as its "strategic partnership" with the United States.

The Turkish parliament voted 358 votes to 183 Tuesday to authorise dispatch of troops into Iraq. The parliament had turned down a government proposal earlier to send Turkish troops to support the invasion of Iraq.

The clear parliamentary authorisation now comes for fear that staying on the sidelines once again could damage the country’s national interests.

The government move and parliamentary approval come in the face of polls showing some 60 percent public opposition to military involvement in the Iraqi quagmire. And there is opposition to Turkish soldiers from within Iraq itself.

The government of the ruling Justice and Development Party has sought to portray the decision as a contribution to peace and to the stability and territorial integrity of neighbouring Iraq.

The overriding justification, however, is that another decision that goes in the face of what the United States wants would leave Turkey without a voice in a post-war settlement in the region.

The move came after the United States agreed an 8.5 billion dollar loan to Turkey. Both sides said the loan was not linked to the dispatch of troops.

In its motion seeking parliamentary approval, the government made no mention of persistent U.S. demands for Turkish troops, and stressed its own national interests.

Turkey’s overwhelming national interest, the government said, lies in preventing the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq that could embolden its own Kurds – some 20 percent of the population.

Stories have appeared in Turkish media that if Turkey were to send its troops into Iraq, it would secure U.S. help in moving against some 5,000 Kurdish guerrillas believed to be holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq.

Turkish officials have expressed fears that the United States may well link up with Kurds in northern Iraq at Turkey’s expense. Kurd groups aided U.S. troops in northern Iraq after Turkey turned down a U.S. request to open up a northern front against the regime of Saddam Hussein. Kurds could be expecting some rewards.

In a warning sign of what could come in the absence of active Turkish support, U.S. forces arrested a dozen Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq earlier this summer on suspicion of "subversive" activities. They were later released.

It has been a difficult decision for the Turkish government, given particularly the Islamic roots of the ruling party, to send troops into a Muslim nation occupied by the United States. The soldiers would make for the largest contingent after the United States and Britain, and be the first significant force from a Muslim nation.

Turkish officials say they need to protect the Turkmen minority from Kurdish domination in oil-rich Kirkuk. At the same time some Kurd leaders in northern Iraq have made it clear that they would not welcome Turkish troops. One Kurdish group has declared already that Turkish troops should not be allowed to pass through northern Iraq.

The Turkish government has sent in a number of teams to assess the kind of reception Turkish troops can expect. It is seeking to pave the way by taking in health workers, contractors to rebuild damaged mosques, and even pop singers to sweeten the local population.

"We will go for ending of the occupation as soon as possible," foreign minister Abdullah Gul said earlier. The troops would seek "protection of the territorial and political integrity of Iraq, preventing terrorists from staying there, and making Iraq a country which can use its own resources."

The troops will not be deployed in the Kurdish areas in the north of Iraq. At the moment Turkey has decided to deploy its soldiers for a year. It is not clear when the troops will be sent.