| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Turkey gives up on Iraq deployment |
| 2003-10-30 |
| Confirmed by TurkishPress.com, so it looks like a done deal. Turkey’s President Ahmad Necdet Sezer considers the controversial issue of deploying Turkish troops in neighbouring Iraq as "closed." It was the first time a Turkish statesman had indicated a serious setback in the deployment plan although the statement did not spell out whether the president thought troops would ultimately be sent or not. "For me this question is closed," Sezer said on Wednesday at a reception marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish republic. The United States originally asked Ankara for military help in Iraq, but then appeared to back-pedal on the idea in the face of opposition from Iraq’s governing council. "It is very difficult to reconcile the necessary conditions for deploying troops," Sezer was quoted as saying. Seeing as the locals didn’t like you guys a whole lot. Can’t imagine why. Turkey’s parliament three weeks ago voted in favour of the deployment despite widespread public opposition, with some 80% of the public against dispatching soldiers. On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul accused the US of ineptly handling the issue. From a certain perspective, we handled it very well. "We are not going to undertake anything as long as there are hesitations 
everything concerning us should be very clear, everybody should say yes," Gul said. Faced with opposition from Iraq’s interim leadership, the US is no more seen to be pushing for the Turkish troops. Many Turkish politicians, including ministers, have expressed relief at the prospect of shelving the deployment plan, which has also come under fire from fellow Muslim nations. Iraqis get what they want, Turks get what they want, and Bush gets to point at uncooperative nations that hinder our bringing the boys home. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #9 Rename Kurdistan "Armenia" and see how fast they get their asses down there. Right, Murat? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-30 1:28:03 PM |
| #8 Kurdistan is the part of Iraq that works, why throw a monkey wrench into now. It even worked under the UN food-for-oil regime while the rest of the country was a basket case. Gotta admire those Kurds.... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-10-30 1:18:16 PM |
| #7 Turkey’s President Ahmad Necdet Sezer said, "If we can't kill Kurds we see no point in sending troops to Iraq." That's a paraphrase of his comments of course, but I think they're accurate as towards the intent.Inviting Turkey in was a bad idea to begin with. Kurdistan is the part of Iraq that works, why throw a monkey wrench into now. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-10-30 12:18:51 PM |
| #6 Two questions about the deployment of Turkish (or, God forbid, Pakistani) troops in Iraq: 1. Exactly who and what does one expect an army from a Muslim country to defeat? 2. Putting Muslim troops into Iraq is like putting what on a fire? |
| Posted by: John 2003-10-30 9:57:08 AM |
| #5 Good, keep them home. More trouble then they're worth. We trained w/them back in 98' in some area outside Incirlick(sp?). They have some gung ho folks and some totally hard-ass soldiers but deplorable SOPs when it comes to things like safety and maintaining clean/operational equipment. They had some of the dirtiest/rustiest weapons I'd ever seen. I was surprised because we heard how they'd been dealing w/the Kurds and such for years. During one of their formations (or roll call) one morning some moron actually had a round in the chamber of his weapon and the damn thing went off. We laughed our asses off. Lucky no one got killed. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2003-10-30 9:19:14 AM |
| #4 Murat, I as well as Steve W, quote a lot of biased papers. Al-J, Jihad Unspun, Asia Online, Arab News, BBC, Daily Star, etc. If they are REALLY biased, I always put their name in the top of the post as a warning. Even in some of their most outrageous stories, you can find a few nuggets of information that you can't find anywhere else. If nothing else, it gives you a view of how the other side is thinking. That is almost as important as the facts themselves. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-30 8:43:20 AM |
| #3 heh..heh...popular, those Turks. Must all be as pleasant as Murat. |
| Posted by: B 2003-10-30 8:11:11 AM |
| #2 At first I did not realise Steve, you are quoting Al jazeera. Congrats even I did not use anything from Al Jazeera till now for being accused with biased views, you surprize me! |
| Posted by: Murat 2003-10-30 7:23:52 AM |
| #1 Seeing as the locals didn’t like you guys a whole lot. Well appearantly they like the Americans, between all the flowers thrown by the Iraqis sometimes a few RPG rockets follow. Must be their way of celebrating, shooting with kalashnikovs and RPG's in the air that mistakenly land on the Rashid hotel. |
| Posted by: Murat 2003-10-30 5:43:02 AM |