TURKEY: IRAQI OPPOSITION LEADERS MEETING TURKISH DELEGATION FOR TALKS/ US MILITARY EQUIPMENT MOVED CLOSER TO THE SOUTH EASTERN BORDER

Record ID: 648093

  • Title: TURKEY: IRAQI OPPOSITION LEADERS MEETING TURKISH DELEGATION FOR TALKS/ US MILITARY EQUIPMENT MOVED CLOSER TO THE SOUTH EASTERN BORDER
  • Date: 19th March 2003
  • Summary: (W4) ANKARA, TURKEY (MARCH 19, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF THE ANKARA PALACE HOTEL, LOCATION OF MEETING BETWEEN IRAQI OPPOSITION LEADERS, A TURKISH DELEGATION AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY 0.04 2. SLV POLICE OUTSIDE HOTEL 0.11 3. VARIOUS, ARRIVAL OF U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY ZALMAY KHALILZAD, WALKING INTO BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 0.24 4. VARIOUS, ARRIVAL OF PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN (PUK) LEADER CELAL TALABANI 0.41 5. VARIOUS, ARRIVAL OF KURDISTAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY (KDP) MEMBER NECIRVAN BARZANI 0.55 6. VARIOUS, ARRIVAL OF ABDULAZIZ EL HAKIM, FROM THE SUPREME COUNCIL FOR ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAQ 1.10 7. SMV TURKISH DELEGATION AT THE MEETING 1.14 8. SMV PUK DELEGATION WITH TALABANI 1.18 9. SMV U.S DELEGATION 1.24 10. SMV SUPREME COUNCIL FOR ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAQ DELEGATION 1.28 11. VARIOUS OF MEETING (2 SHOTS) 1.36 (U3) ISKENDERUN, TURKEY (MARCH 19, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 12. WIDE OF PORT WITH SHIP DOCKED IN THE BACKGROUND 1.42 13. SLV U.S. SOLDIERS MOVING AROUND PORT 1.49 14. WIDE OF MILITARY TRUCKS IN PORT AREA 1.55 15. VARIOUS, CONVOY CARRYING U.S. MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEAVING PORT (2 SHOTS) 2.10 16. VARIOUS, OF CONVOY TRAVELLING ALONG HIGHWAY (3 SHOTS) 2.29 17. SLV POLICE/ SECURITY 2.33 18. SLV CIVILIAN BUSES WITH CURTAINS DRAWN LEAVING BASE 2.40 (W5) INCIRLIK, TURKEY (MARCH 19, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 19. WIDE OF AIRBASE WITH CONTROL TOWER 2.45 20. SLV U.S. AIR FORCE PLANES ON TARMAC 2.50 21. WIDE OF AIRCRAFT HANGAR AMD VEHICLES 2.55 22. VARIOUS OF PLANES PARKED AND TAXIING AT AIRBASE (2 SHOTS) 3.05 23. SLV MILITARY VEHICLES AND EMERGENCY TRUCKS AT AIRBASE 3.09 24. SLV OF AIRCRAFT AND GROUND CREW 3.16 25. SLV PLANE TAXIING AT AIRBASE 3.22 26. WIDE OF BASE 3.29 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 3rd April 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ANKARA, ISKENDERUN AND INCIRLIK, TURKEY
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVA43J5JV6WP465P8FLNE170FSEE
  • Story Text: Iraqi opposition leaders are meeting in the Turkish
    capital Ankara with a Turkish delegation as well as U.S.

    presidential envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

    As Turkey's government prepares to vote on a deal to help
    the United States in a war against Iraq, U.S. military
    equipment from the southern port of Iskenderun is being moved
    in convoys closer to the south-eastern border.



    Iraqi opposition groups are continuing their meeting in
    Turkey on Wednesday (March 19).

    Iraq's opposition leaders met early in March in Salahuddin
    where the opposition leaders signalled they would cooperate
    with parts of Washington's plans for regime change in Iraq. At
    the same meeting, the opposition had warned against any Turkey
    presence in Iraq in a war to oust Saddam Hussein.

    As war looms, Turkey has yet to formalise how it will
    cooperate with the United States, its NATO (North Atlantic
    Treaty Organisation) ally, let alone with an array of Kurdish
    groups it traditionally mistrusts.

    Turkey has said its forces could enter Iraq, where it
    already keeps troops, to stem a potential flood of refugees
    fleeing violence, as well as to thwart any attempts by Iraqi
    Kurds to establish an independent state in the region.

    Turkey fears Iraq's Kurds have designs on the Iraqi oil
    fields of Mosul and Kirkuk and may seek independence for the
    north, threatening instability in Turkey's own mainly-Kurdish
    southeast.

    Kurds feel the cities are historically theirs, and
    thousands of Kurds expelled from the region by the government
    of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might return there during a
    war. Iraqi Kurds say Turkish troops would not be welcome there
    and fear clashes if Turkey enters the region without the
    presence of U.S. troops.

    At the same time, the Turkish government is under pressure
    to come to an agreement to help its key ally the U.S. as the
    countdown to war with Iraq passes.

    At the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun on Wednesday
    (March 19) morning several convoys left the port. U.S.

    military equipment has been moved in convoys from the port for
    some weeks, travelling to the southeast of the country and to
    other port locations in the south. Thousands of U.S. troops
    still wait in ships offshore for a decision by Turkey to let
    them disembark onto Turkish soil.

    A convoy of what appeared to be civilian buses also left
    the port on Wednesday morning with curtains drawn across the
    windows. Port authorities said U.S. soldiers were on the buses
    and were being driven up to bases around the Mardin area,
    where much of the equipment is already housed.

    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday
    (March 19) Turkey was preparing to open its airspace to U.S.

    warplanes but would not allow them access to airbases even for
    refuelling.

    It was not immediately clear what use the United States
    could make of its warplanes at the Incirlik airbase, used by
    U.S. and British jets to patrol a no-fly zone in northern Iraq
    since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

    Erdogan made no mention of those Operation Northern Watch
    patrols but it appeared likely that their mandate for
    operations would not be expanded to include a wider war on
    Iraq.

    (ds/




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