TURKEY: U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL HAS MET WITH TURKISH PRESIDENT AHMED NECDET SEZER AND TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN

Record ID: 645892

  • Title: TURKEY: U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL HAS MET WITH TURKISH PRESIDENT AHMED NECDET SEZER AND TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN
  • Date: 2nd April 2003
  • Summary: (W4) ANKARA, TURKEY (APRIL 2, 2003) (REUTERS) SLV OF DEMONSTRATION AT THE PRIME MINISTRY SV PEOPLE CHANTING "MURDERER POWELL GO AWAY FROM TURKEY" CU BANNER READING "POWELL GO AWAY" PAN OF DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING SLV/SV OF RIOT POLICE (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 17th April 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ANKARA, TURKEY
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA491U6GB9NVNO1YANWU85GU52P
  • Story Text: U.S. secretary of State Colin Powell has met with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. Powell is in Ankara to cement an informal agreement on the Kurdish controlled enclave.
    U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip (tay-yeep) Erdogan (er-do-an) and Turkish President Ahmet (ah-mad) Necdet (naj-dat) Sezer (cae-saer) on Wednesday (April 2) as part of efforts to dissuade Turkey from sending any large force into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
    The United States (U.S.) worries a large-scale Turkish incursion could undermine the U.S.-led war against Iraq by stirring conflict with the Kurds and creating a war within a war.
    Powell met with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul earlier in the morning. Their meeting in the Turkish capital was the first of a set of talks with Turkish decision-makers, including the chief of the influential military, General Hilmi Ozkok.
    A group gathered in front of the Prime Ministry to protest the war in Iraq and the arrival of the U.S. Secretary of State to Turkey.
    Demonstrators chanted slogans like "Murderer Powell go home" while riot police took important security measures around the building.
    Turkish police arrested a small group of leftists protesting against the war outside the Foreign Ministry before Powell arrived.
    Public opinion in Turkey is widely against the war and Ankara's parliament denied permission for up to 62,000 U.S.
    troops to use Turkish territory before the war began on March
    With a U.S. aid deal at stake for Turkey, Powell spoke of a lingering sense of disappointment since Ankara's parliament decision to deny access and open a northern front against Iraq.
    Turkey has so far reserved the right to bolster a military presence in northern Iraq if it sees a danger of the Kurds establishing an independent state that, it says, would rekindle armed Kurdish separatism in Turkey's southeast.
    Iraqi Kurds have threatened to repel any unilateral Turkish invasion.
    Small detachments of Turkish forces have been in northern Iraq since the 1990s fighting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas sheltering in the mountains there.
    The United States has deployed a small number of troops in northern Iraq to operate alongside Kurdish fighters in its war against Baghdad. It is also hitting Iraqi positions in the north with heavy strikes from the air.
    Powell said he was in Ankara to cement an informal agreement over northern Iraq and to improve faltering Turkish co-operation on aid shipments there amid a U.S. proposal of up to 8.5 billion U.S. dollars in loan guarantees for Turkey's frail economy.
    Turkish media expect a request for the use of two or three airbases in Turkey. But the government will be keen to avoid the active military support that might risk rejection in parliament.
    In a sign Turkey may already be helping with supplies, Reuters reporter Jon Hemming said he saw a convoy of about 25 Turkish-registered trucks heading south in northern Iraq with a U.S. military escort. A U.S. soldier with the convoy declined to say what it was carrying or where it was headed.
    Military experts say the deployment of thousands of troops through Turkey would probably have speeded the progress of U.S.-led forces towards Baghdad and reduced U.S. casualties.
    Although Turkey refused to allow a U.S. deployment, it has granted the United States overflight rights for its warplanes and Tomahawk cruise missiles.
    On Tuesday (April 1), the U.S. Congress considered a 75 billion U.S. dollar war aid bill, which includes a 1 billion U.S. dollar grant to Turkey exchangeable for up to 8.5 billion U.S. dollars in loan guarantees.
    Powell will also meet North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and European Union (EU) foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the war, the European Commission says.
    The invasion of Iraq is opposed by a number of European countries, notably France and Germany.
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