Turkey Reinforces Iraq Border

posted by NYC on Friday March 07, @11:39AM

Today: March 07, 2003 at 10:45:23 PST

By SELCAN HACAOGLU, ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANKARA, Turkey (AP)

Turkey strengthened its forces on the Iraq border Friday, sending hundreds of trucks and dozens of tanks and artillery guns to the frontier in the largest Turkish military buildup ahead of a possible Iraq war.

The move comes amid tensions between Turkey and Iraqi Kurds who live in an autonomous zone across the border. Turks and Iraqi Kurds could be key allies of the United States in a war to depose Saddam Hussein.

Turkey has said it will send tens of thousands of troops into northern Iraq in the case of a war to prevent a flood of refugees and the creation of a Kurdish state if Iraq disintegrates. Iraqi Kurds have threatened to resist any Turkish incursion.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman cautioned Turkey on Friday against sending troops into northern Iraq without a coalition - a sign that the Turkish buildup could strain relations with Washington.

Continued.

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"We oppose a unilateral Turkish move into northern Iraq," Grossman said in an interview with Turkish television station CNN-Turk.

The United States seeks to use Turkey as a staging ground to invade Iraq. The Turkish military and government want to allow Washington to deploy more than 60,000 troops in the country, but parliament has so far blocked the move.

Some 300 trucks and 200 other vehicles left military barracks near the southeastern province of Sanliurfa early Friday and rumbled toward the border, military sources said. The trucks were carrying M-47 tanks, ambulances, jeeps, self-propelled howitzers and other artillery.

More than 1,000 Turkish soldiers also rode on buses toward the border.

On the main highway that cuts through the border towns of Cizre and Silopi, Kurdish men, women and children came out of teahouses and homes and silently watched the passage of Turkish tanks and other heavy weapons.

The armored vehicles, military equipment and troops were heading to temporary barracks set up just four miles from the Iraqi border. The area has been declared off-limits to journalists.

Last week, Turkey's parliament rejected a resolution allowing U.S. troops into he country. The government says it will press for a new resolution, though a new vote could take two or three weeks.

"If there is going to be a war, which is outside Turkey's will, it is impossible for Turkey to remain indifferent and say, 'Whatever will happen can happen, I'll watch from a distance,'" Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said. "If there is a fire at your neighbor's house, you can't say, 'I won't touch it.' We will strive to get Turkey and the people out of this with the minimum of damage."

Turkey fears that an Iraq war could lead to an independent Kurdish state and revive a 15-year war between Kurdish rebels and Turkish troops in the southeast of the country.

Barham Salih, a senior official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two factions that control northern Iraq, met with Turkish officials in Ankara on Friday for talks aimed at easing tensions.

"We're opposed to unilateral intervention by any of our neighbors," Salih said, adding that Turkish Foreign Ministry officials assured him Turkey had no intention of crushing Kurdish self-rule in the autonomous region of northern Iraq.

The Foreign Ministry also hosted U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat and co-chairman of the Caucus on U.S.-Turkish relations. Wexler held talks with Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis about the U.S. plans for a troop deployment.

Turkey has already authorized the U.S. military to renovate Turkish ports and bases for the arrival of combat troops and warplanes, and the pace of that work seemed to accelerate this week.

Workers unloaded U.S. military vehicles, ambulances, construction equipment and other material from a 22,000-ton freighter at the easternmost Mediterranean Turkish port of Iskenderun.

On Thursday, some 30 trucks carrying U.S. jeeps, fuel trucks, and other support equipment left the port for a waiting station outside the nearby city of Mardin, just 110 miles from the Iraqi border. It was the first time U.S. military material had left Turkish ports.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/mar/07/030701887.html

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