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No vote on US troops before end of week
The Turkish parliament will not vote on a request to station US troops inside the country before the end of the week, according to a statement issued by the office of the Turkish Prime Minister late Thursday. According to the statement from Prime Minister Abdullah GÃŒlâs office, there was no question of parliament voting on the issue before next week. The US has been pushing Turkey to make a decision on whether it will support a possible military strike against Iraq. This includes the deployment of US troops inside Turkey. The decision not to send the motion to parliament on Friday was confirmed by Turkish Foreign Minster Yaßar YakÜß on Thursday evening. Speaking after a meeting with the Prime Minister and other senior members of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, YakÜß said that the motion would not be submitted on Friday and that it was not technically possible to do so. The Foreign Minister also denied that US Secretary of State Colin Powell had issued an ultimatum to Turkey to make a decision on the question of US troops on Thursday. Following both the US media and the Turkish media there are parts, which are interesting. The US media is projecting the stalling of allowing US troops only on economic parameters, while the Turkish media states that US officials are not straight in their pledges to inform Ankara about their war plans. In other words the US politicians donât seem to or donât want to understand the real meaning of the word âallyâ. As a Turk I am pro American, this in contradiction to my anti-war feelings, at the same time I am fully in support of my government not to let Turkey patronized in a way the US wants. If there is an alliance this must be in the true meaning of the word. Posted by: Murat 2003-02-21 |
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