Turkey war against terrorism or USA only

Parliament gives go-ahead for incursion

Agreeing that the fight against terrorism should be embraced as a national cause and defying international pressure, the Turkish Parliament overwhelmingly approved a governmental motion on Wednesday that seeks parliamentary authorization for a cross-border operation into Iraq to crush outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases there.

Parliament voted 507-19 in favor of empowering the government to order the military to cross into Iraq over a one-year period, Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan announced in Parliament yesterday afternoon. The deputies present burst into applause.

The motion -- authorizing an attack into Iraq sometime over the upcoming year -- got full backing from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), despite both parties' critical view of the government, which they accused of not having taken timely and effective action against terrorist attacks launched by the PKK. As expected, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) rejected the resolution, saying that Turkey should seek a democratic resolution of the Kurdish issue instead.

We have proposed this motion for the peace and welfare of our country. After accepting this motion, we will do what is necessary for the country's interests," Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek told parliament. Çiçek stressed that any military action would target only the PKK. He said the government would also continue to use economic and diplomatic measures in its fight against terrorism.

In Washington, President George W. Bush said the United States was making clear to Turkey it should not send massive number of troops into Iraq. Turkish leaders have stressed that an offensive against the PKK would not immediately follow the expected authorization.

“Actually they have troops already stationed in Iraq and they’ve had troops stationed there for quite a while. We don’t think it’s in their interest to send more troops in,” Bush said at a hastily arranged press conference.

Declaring his party’s support, the CHP’s Şükrü Elekdağ said approval of the motion was important for “displaying the joint will” of the country. A former ambassador to the United States, he also criticized Washington for its policies “snubbing Turkey’s interests” through constant inaction against the PKK.

Washington, wary of the prospect of fresh turmoil in the conflict-torn country, has repeatedly urged Turkey to avoid any unilateral military action in Iraq. However, the US capital has lost leverage with Ankara because of a pending congressional vote on a resolution branding the 1915-17 Ottoman Empire era killings of Anatolian Armenians genocide, a move that has prompted Turkish warnings of reprisals against its NATO ally.

The United States, as well as the government’s approach towards the US inaction against the PKK activities in Iraq, was the focus of criticism by the MHP’s Deniz Bölükbaşı. Calling the motion “virtually artificial,” Bölükbaşı also said military relations with the US could not continue as before if the US House of Representatives approves the Armenian resolution.

Speaking for the DTP, Selahattin Demirtaş said the presence of different opinions concerning the PKK issue should be taken as a natural fact. “If we all say ‘yes’ [to a military incursion] then the voice rising from Parliament will not be seen as a democratic one. If only the DTP says ‘no’, then we cannot say that the voice rising from Parliament is a democratic one either. … Our face will be turned towards Ankara and towards democracy and peace under all kinds of circumstances. We hope that the issue will be resolved without feeling the need to use this motion and without causing the slightest harm to any of our people,” he said.

Meanwhile, intense efforts by senior figures of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to persuade its Kurdish deputies to support the motion yielded results. Education Minister and Van deputy Hüseyin Çelik, AK Party Deputy Chairman Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat, Diyarbakır deputy İhsan Arslan and Ağrı deputy Cemal Kaya played an important role, arguing that in the event of the motion not being approved, they would be seen as following the same line as deputies of the DTP - who stood alone in their rejection of the motion.

Parliament voted 507-19 in favor of empowering the government to order the military to cross into Iraq over a one-year period, Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan announced in Parliament yesterday afternoon. The deputies present burst into applause.

Iraqi Kurds call motion ‘illegal’

But in Sulaimaniya the autonomous Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq warned Turkish lawmakers, saying that a vote to authorize an armed incursion to crush the PKK would be illegal.

“We see the problem [of the PKK] as a Turkish internal problem,” said regional government spokesman Jamal Abdullah. “If the Turkish Parliament gives the authorization to the army to enter another country, we consider this illegal and a violation of international law and the United Nations’ Charter,” Abdullah told Agence France-Presse.

Chiefs of international bodies joined calls for restraint with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer speaking to Turkish President Abdullah Gül and expressing “his view that all parties should exercise the greatest possible restraint, particularly in this time of great tension.”

NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters on Wednesday that de Hoop Scheffer had spoken to Gül late Tuesday to pass on condolences for deadly attacks on Turkey, a member of NATO. “He has expressed his understanding for the great pressure on Turkish society as a result of these regular losses,” Appathurai said.

He stressed that NATO supports Turkey’s view that the PKK is a terrorist organization. Under NATO’s founding treaty, allies can request political consultations or military assistance if they come under attack from outside forces, but Appathurai said Turkey had made no such request for help against the PKK.

In New York UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, when asked about possible Turkish action in Iraq, made a veiled appeal for restraint, noting: “We are going through a very difficult and sensitive period in Iraq. We need full cooperation and support from the countries in the region,” he told reporters, noting Turkey will host an international conference on Iraq in early November, referring to a major international meeting on Iraq to be held in İstanbul.

In Washington at the US Defense Department Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, operations chief for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked whether the US military was considering helping Turkey in the event it went after the PKK in northern Iraq.

“It would be inappropriate for me from this standpoint to say we are ruling out or ruling in specific military options,” Ham said. He said Gen. David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, and other commanders are watching the situation closely.

“I don’t know specifically what they are planning to do if this matter continues to evolve,” Ham said. He also said that because there is only one principal overland route from Turkey into northern Iraq for transporting military supplies, a Turkish land offensive southward would have “a significant effect” on the US military’s ability to resupply its forces in northern Iraq.

Former US National Security Council adviser Brent Scowcroft, in Ankara to lobby Turkish officials, had already said Washington should have done more to address Turkish concerns about the PKK.

“We have taken some steps, but they have been very inadequate and we are trying to improve cooperation between Iraq and Turkey on dealing with that,” he told Reuters on Tuesday. He said any Turkish incursion into northern Iraq was likely to destabilize the area and complicate an already complex situation there.

“But also, the Turks are an ally and they are suffering from PKK activities across the border, so it’s a balancing act,” Scowcroft added.

Meanwhile, the Turkish capital continued its diplomatic efforts to explain its stance on PKK terrorism and intentions for launching a military incursion into neighboring Iraq. The Foreign Ministry hosted ambassadors of the countries on Wednesday which will participate in the İstanbul conference -- an expanded meeting of the countries neighboring Iraq with G-8 members and permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The ambassadors were briefed by Turkey’s special envoy to Iraq, Ambassador Oğuz Çelikkol, and the head of department for security affairs, Ambassador Hayati Güven, on why the government was passing the motion.

If american can come from 10000 miles away to do war against terror, why USA is saying that it will be illegal for Turkey to do any war against terror, while its just in the neighbourhood.

Is america only allowed to do war against terror?

	Ayesha wrote:
	If american can come from 10000 miles away to do war against terror, why USA is saying that it will be illegal for Turkey to do any war against terror, while its just in the neighbourhood. Is america only allowed to do war against terror?

As long as so called "Islamic States" are not united america can do anything they like.

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Last edited by php_web on Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:03 pm; edited 1 time in total

php_web wrote:

	Ayesha wrote:
	If american can come from 10000 miles away to do war against terror, why USA is saying that it will be illegal for Turkey to do any war against terror, while its just in the neighbourhood. Is america only allowed to do war against terror?

As long as so called "Islamic States" are not united america and can do anything they like.

Agreed !

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	Ayesha wrote:
	If american can come from 10000 miles away to do war against terror, why USA is saying that it will be illegal for Turkey to do any war against terror, while its just in the neighbourhood. Is america only allowed to do war against terror?

Majority is athority......

Power comes, when u grab, wat shines.......

After Arab, Afghanistan, Iraq, now Iran & then..... all know

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I heard that recently on the news.
But Turkey aim to war only against Kurds people, not exactly the terrorists, its just an excuse.

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Turkey has the right to defend itself from any foreign threat.

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Respect All
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