TURKEY: PRESIDENT OF IRAQ'S GOVERNING COUNCIL JALAL TALABANI ARRIVES ON VISIT PITCHED AT BOLSTERING FRAGILE TIES

Record ID: 443007

  • Title: TURKEY: PRESIDENT OF IRAQ'S GOVERNING COUNCIL JALAL TALABANI ARRIVES ON VISIT PITCHED AT BOLSTERING FRAGILE TIES
  • Date: 20th November 2003
  • Summary: (EU) ANKARA, TURKEY (NOVEMBER 19, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. MV STATE MINISTER KURSAT TUZMEN WELCOMING JALAL TALABANI AT THE TREASURY; MV BILATERAL MEETING; MV MEDIA; MV TALABANI (5 SHOTS) 0.29 2. MV IRAQI DELEGATION; MV TALABANI AND TUZMEN AT MEETING; MV IRAQI DELEGATION (4 SHOTS) 0.55 3. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) THE PRESIDENT OF IRAQ'S GOVERNING COUNCIL, JALAL TALABANI SAYING "Turkey has hosted ten thousands of refugees. Turkey has protected us by opening the Incirlik airbase" 1.18 4. MV TURKISH DELEGATION 1.25 5. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) JALAL TALABANI SAYING "There are eighty regions, areas in Baghdad and there is chaos in only eight of them." 1.40 6. MV IRAQI DELEGATIONl; MV TALABANI AND TUZMEN LEAVING 1.54 (EU) ANKARA,TURKEY (NOVEMBER 19, 2003) (REUTERS) 7. MV TALABANI ARRIVING AT PRIME MINISTRY; MV TURKISH PRIME MINISTER ERDOGAN WELCOMING TALABANI; SCU TALABANI; MV ERDOGAN AND TALABANI HAND SHAKING; MV ERDOGAN HAND SHAKING HANDS WITH IRAQI DELEGATION (6 SHOTS) 2.57 8. MV ERDOGAN ZOOM OUT SLV MEETING IN PROGRESS; MV ERDOGAN AND TALABANI; SLV MEETING (3 SHOTS) 3.15 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ANKARA, TURKEY
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVAAF4RJG12QX994T89LYN95A6II
  • Story Text: The president of Iraqs Governing Council Talabani
    seeks to mend fences with Turkey.

    The president of Iraq's Governing Council arrived in
    Ankara on Wednesday (November 19) for a visit pitched at
    bolstering fragile ties with its neighbour Turkey.

    Relations took a nosedive in October when the Council
    objected strongly to plans to deploy up to 10,000 Turkish
    troops in Iraq
    to help U.S. forces secure the peace there.

    Turkey later cancelled plans to deploy its soldiers.

    Ankara had hoped a large military presence in Iraq would
    give it more of a
    say in U.S. post-war planning there.

    "Turkey has hosted ten of thousands of refugees and has
    protected us by opening the Incirlik airbase", said
    President of Iraqs governing council Jalal Talabani.

    He told reporters,they are pinning much hope on the
    visit and further hoping to develop ties with Turkey and
    the new Iraq.

    U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds led the opposition to the
    Turkish troop deployment.

    Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the rival
    Kurdistan Democratic Party, have been wary of Turkish
    ambitions in
    northern Iraq, fearing the military could intervene to
    block any steps Kurds might take to solidify the broad
    autonomy they have
    enjoyed since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

    Talabani said Turkey had already done much to help the
    emergence of an Iraq without Saddam Hussein including
    allowing U.S. and British warplanes to patrol a no-fly zone in
    northern Iraq before the war from an airbase in southern
    Turkey.

    Turkey had also sheltered hundreds of thousands of
    Iraqi refugees after the Gulf War, he added.

    Turkey, a major thoroughfare to Iraq for aid and
    materials for reconstruction, hopes trade with Iraq could
    reach $1 billion in 2003.

    Turkish construction companies and manufacturers are
    already chasing lucrative contracts in the war-torn country.

    Ankara also stations several thousand troops in
    northern Iraq to stop Turkish Kurdish militants holed up in
    the mountains
    there from returning to launch attacks in Turkey.

    Turkish firms should feel safe investing in Iraq,
    Talabani said adding that attacks on U.S.-led coalition
    forces and civilian
    targets occurred in only a few regions of the country.

    "There are 80 regions, areas in Baghdad and there is
    chaos in only 8 of them," he said.

    A deepening insurgency of Saddam loyalists and Islamist
    militants has killed at least 177 U.S. soldiers in Iraq in
    just over six months.


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