Oh goody. We've all seen how the Turkish army are steadfast upholders of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; paragons of military virtue, heros to Kurdish refugees everywhere. So, the poor Kurds are going to be left to the tender mercies of the Turks while we focus on the southern oil fields. Lovely. That should do wonders for international opinion once this shindig gets started.
> Bush, like, asked them to do this I re-read this article and went looking through all the most recent news from different sources. I can't find any evidence that Bush asked them to. I cannot imagine any reason Bush would want them to, unless he has some pretty substantial secret agreements already set up with them, and it does not sound like it as their government is still debating whether to let America have a small north invasion force.
Turkey could be launchpad for invasion By Anne Penketh 01 February 2003 Turkey paved the way for American and British troops to use the country as a "northern front" against Iraq last night when military and civilian leaders approved the stationing of foreign troops in their country. The National Security Council called for the activation of "military measures necessary to protect Turkey's national interests". Its decision, after a lengthy meeting, now goes to the government and will require parliamentary approval. The Americans have been seeking Turkey's approval for its border area and air bases to be used as a possible northern front. Turkish forces are already stationed in the region to counter unrest by separatist Kurds, and plan to deploy in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq if there is a war, to maintain stability. A military official in the border region said 10,000 soldiers had been deployed near the border.
This is why I asked GT the question. I was trying to figure out what he meant. Clearly, we love the Turks, and are willing to look the other way when it comes to their behavior vis a vis the Kurds. I'll throw in the Greeks as well. Would George Bush love for the Turks to build a line of weaponry and take some shots at the Iraqis, even if that meant killing some Kurds in the process? Heck yeah.
Turkey has a great deal to fear from any gains made by the Kurds. If the Kurds were to be the big winners from the US dumping Saddam, it would open up a huge can of worms as far as Turkey as concerned. Traditional Turkey isn't what it appears on the map.
The Turks fear something that goes along the lines of the Treaty of Serves http://www.geocities.com/iturks/html/documents_3.html
It didn't go that easily. If you remember, the US had originaly asked for permission to place 80 000 troops there, which Turkey denied, allowing 10 000 only. Seems to me they'd rather make sure things go their way in northern Iraq. http://www.msnbc.com/news/860201.asp?0cb=-419102579
Your link has a dateline of January 17th. Mine is February 1st. An agreement has been reached. There is no word on how many American and British troops will be deployed in Turkey, the 10000 figure is the number of Turkish troops.
If I recall, the tentative agreement between Turkey and the US announced a week or so ago called for them to allow us to position something on the order of two or three regiments, or about 3-4,000 personnel. Not what a Pentagon planner would want if one was thinking of launching offensive operations from Turkey.
The NYT's interpretation of the actual under the covers deal is that Turkey will permit 20,000 US troops AT A GIVEN TIME to be in Turkey. Note the distinction. This means that Turkey will allow the US to amass 80,000+ or whatever the number of troops in Northern Iraq just across from the Turkish border. It just happens to be that the number of US troops passing in transit through Turkey at a given moment cannot exceed 20K. It's a silly little numbers game, but such is the way of war/peace politics. So the US gets it's Northern front as powerful as it wants, and the fragile Turkish government can tell their eloctrate "hey don't worry we are still calling the shots, see they are respecting our request to not get us too involved". I think all the Turkish troops massing in Northern Iraq right now are just setting up "base camp" for the eventual deployment of US deployments there. I think this strategy was hammered out 3 weeks ago during the US Chief of Staff General Myers' visit to his Turkish military counterpart.
The only reason the Turkish government has moved it's troops to the border, is because it fears another huge flow of Kurdish refugees to move into Turkey when gulf war II will start, has nothing to do with any request by Bush.
How can you expect a country ,which will have a war right next door, to not deploy any kind of military to the border? By the way just to let you, Northern Iraq experts know, the Kurdish opposition leaders Barzani and Talabani has asked for Turkish troops to move into Northern Iraq to set up refugee camps.
Sorry man but you got it all wrong. There is a big difference between a Kurd and a Kurdish seperatists. Just like the difference between the muslims and the Al-Queda. Turkish military is preparing for another Kurdish seperatist movement that is to take land away from Turkey and make a country called Kurdistan.