Turkish parliament votes to send troops to Iraq
Turkey became the first Muslim country to agree to send peace-keeping troops to support the US in Iraq. But many questions remain and an actual deployment is fraught with risks both for the Turkish government and region as a whole. Gareth Jenkins reports from Ankara
On Tuesday the Turkish parliament voted to authorize the government to send peace-keeping troops to Iraq, making it the first Muslim country to pledge military support to the US-led coalition. But the decision was taken before an agreement with the US over the terms and location of a Turkish deployment and despite widespread opposition both domestically and from Iraq's Governing Council.
Most Turks believe that the US launched the war to oust Saddam Hussein to safeguard its oil supplies and are reluctant for Turkish soldiers to risk their lives supporting what is now seen as a US occupation of a neighbouring country. While members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the Kurds above all, suspect Turkey's motives and have bitter collective memories of the last time that Turkish troops were in Iraq during the bloody collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
There is little doubt that, for the Iraqi Kurds in particular, the suspicions about Turkish motives are justified. Members of Turkey's civilian government are primarily motivated by the need to repair relations with Washington and ensure continued financial support both from the US itself and the IMF. In March this year relations with the US nosedived after the Turkish government first promised Washington that it would allow 60,000 US troops to transit Turkey in the run-up to the Gulf War and strike at Iraq from the north, only for the Turkish parliament to refuse to allow US troops into the country. Late last month, after the Turkish government indicated that it was prepared to send troops to Iraq, the US signed a preliminary agreement with Turkey to provide $8.5 billion in soft loans, in addition to the $33 billion that Turkey has already borrowed from the IMF.
But for the Turkish military rebuilding relations with the US is secondary to trying to prevent the emergence of a Kurdish state in the north of Iraq, which they fear would fuel the separatist ambitions of Turkey's still restive 12-15 million Kurds. In many ways, when it comes to Iraq, the Turkish military still has a 'Kurdish policy' rather than an 'Iraqi policy'.
"The longer the current instability in Iraq continues, and particularly if it deteriorates, the greater the chance that the Iraqi Kurds will break away and form either their own independent state or some kind of Kurdish region in a federal state structure," said a source close to the Turkish military. "We want Turkish troops to go to Iraq to help ensure stability, provide humanitarian aid and rebuild infrastructure not only because it would help the Iraqi people but because if there is a viable and successful Iraqi state the Kurds are less likely to want to break away."
Initial Turkish plans foresee the deployment of up to 10,000 troops to Iraq. Many Iraqi Kurds fear that such a large military presence would be used not to create an attractive alternative to Kurdish independence but effectively constitute an occupying force ready to crush by force any attempts to establish a distinct Kurdish political entity in the north of the country.
The Kurds are already applying pressure on the US to prevent Turks from either being deployed in the predominantly Kurdish north or, more sensitively, running supply lines south from Turkey through Kurdish areas if, as appears likely, Turkish troops are deployed around Tikrit or northwest of Baghdad. Many fear that, under the pretext of securing their lines, Turkey would establish semi-permanent military bases in Kurdish areas. Privately, some warn that if Turkish troops establish a presence close to Kurdish areas they could find themselves under attack not just from the elements currently carrying out attacks against US and UK forces in Iraq but also from the Iraq Kurds themselves. Although the Turkish military has accepted that it will suffer casualties as a result of a deployment of troops to Iraq, there still appears little understanding amongst the Turkish government of the domestic repercussions once body bags from what is a predominantly conscript army begin arriving back in Turkey. While any clashes between Turkish soldiers and Iraqi Kurds would not further destabilize Iraq but would almost lead to a major confrontation between Ankara and the US.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 9 - 15 October 2003 (Issue No. 659)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/659/re7.htm