October 8, 2003	Wednesday	Sha’aban 11, 1424

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ANKARA, Oct 7: The Turkish parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favour of sending troops to Iraq, despite strong opposition at home and from Iraq’s interim leadership.

The motion — adopted by a vote of 358 to 183 in the assembly, which is dominated by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) — authorizes the government to deploy troops for a maximum of one year to serve in an international stabilization force in the war-torn country.

However, it does not specify how many troops will be sent and to which part of Iraq, leaving those details to be worked out in ongoing negotiations with the United States, which was eagerly anticipating the authorization.

“The parliament’s decision is not a decision with immediate effect,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after the vote.

Erdogan said Turkey had a moral responsibility to help its neighbour and he stressed that any deployment must also bolster Ankara’s own security needs.

“One of the most fundamental conditions for Iraq to live in peace and security is for the total clean-up of terrorist organisations...including Turkey’s biggest priority, the PKK/KADEK, that are still based in the country,” he said.

Political analysts said Turkey was unlikely to rush.

“The government is not in a hurry to deploy the troops. They will use today’s decision as leverage in their negotiations about expenses, the location and even the number of troops,” said Sami Kohen, a columnist at the Milliyet daily.

The United States welcomed the decision by Turkey’s parliament. “We welcome the approval in the Turkish parliament of the Turkish government’s initiative to send troops to the stability forces in Iraq,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington.

“The US believes that Turkish troops would contribute to stability in Iraq, and we will be consulting closely with the Turkish government over the detail of Turkish participation,” he added.

Just as Turkish lawmakers were debating the motion behind closed doors, a member of the US-backed Governing Council in Baghdad issued a clear warning that troops from Turkey and other neighbouring countries were not welcome.

“It is the wrong thing to do. It does not add to security. It is not useful,” said Mahmud Othman, whose Kurdish ethnic group has a long history of bad blood with the Turks.

Other representatives of several parties on the US-appointed Governing Council said its members had all agreed to reject the presence of any troops from neighbours, including Turkey.

Both Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul played down Mr Othman’s remarks and insisted that Ankara’s only aim was to help the Iraqi people restore stability after the war.

“Turkish troops will serve in Iraq not as an occupation force but as friends and brothers of the Iraqi people to help end the transition process as soon as possible,” Mr Erdogan said.

Mr Gul, for his part, said: “We are not planning only a military force, but also (humanitarian) assistance and services for the Iraqi people.”

Once the deployment goes ahead, Turkey will be third mainly Muslim country to send troops to Iraq after Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

Its forces will join more than 155,000 troops from 34 countries.

The government, backed by the army, believes military involvement will give Ankara a say in future developments in Iraq and the region, and will convince the United States to take action against 5,000 Turkish Kurd rebels hiding in northern Iraq.

PUBLIC OPINION: But a large body of Turkish public opinion remains hostile to the plan.

Some 100 activists took to the streets in the Turkish capital before the vote, calling on the government to drop its plans.

“Damn the USA and collaborator AKP! This country, these people are not for sale,” chanted demonstrators after they were prevented by police from marching on parliament.

In return for Turkey’s cooperation in Iraq, Washington has granted Ankara a loan of 8.5 billion dollars in a deal which was harshly criticized by the opposition.

Shortly after the vote, some 40 demonstrators gathered on one of the two bridges over the Bosphorus linking the European and Asian sides of Istanbul to protest the decision, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The government’s proposal has also attracted criticism from Iraqi Kurds, who suspect Turkey wants to gain a foothold in their northern enclave — a claim Ankara denies.

The Turkish government sees military involvement in Iraq as a way to make up for its parliament’s refusal on March 1 to allow the United States to use its territory as a springboard to attack Iraq. —Agencies