ISTANBUL: Turkey’s decision not to send troops to Iraq has brought relief to Iraqis and Turks, but comes as a setback to an increasingly beleaguered United States.

Turkey acted on Friday after the US acknowledged that Turkish troops would run into an unfriendly reception, if not resistance. The Turkish government had obtained parliamentary authorisation under intense US insistence earlier to dispatch as many as 10,000 troops. That was to be the first major force from a Muslim nation.

The US had expected that forces from its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) ally would be readily accepted Iraq, and would lessen the burden of the war on its soldiers. They were seen also as opening the way for troops from other Muslim nations. The parliamentary approval is valid for one year and Turkey could still send troops in the next 11 months. But few expect the anti-Turkish sentiment in Iraq to change.

“We were never eager (to send troops),” Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said following the decision on Friday. Opinion polls find more than 60 per cent Turks opposed to active involvement in Iraq.

Anti—war protests ceased in Turkey following the government announcement. The military immediately disbanded its preparations.

The US sees no role for Turkish troops over the next six months. It is counting on recruitment from within Iraq for security as it scales down its forces from 132,000 to 100,000 in the face of body bags coming home in increasing numbers.

“It is clear that the Iraqi Governing Council members managed to convince US chief administrator for Iraq L. Paul Bremer that only a new Iraqi security force composed of militia members could really handle the security situation,” says Ilnur Cevik, editor of the English-language Turkish Daily News.

But banking on security from Iraqi forces, particularly Kurds in the north and Shias in the south raises prospects of a “warlord” culture, says Cevik. “The Americans should be aware that once they invaded Iraq, they let the cat out of the bag.”

Turkey’s decision displayed publicly that the US underestimated Iraqi opposition to troops from Turkey. This includes opposition from within the interim government installed by the US.

Both Arabs and Kurds see Turkey as an interested party. The Ottoman empire that preceded modern day Turkey once ruled Iraq, and Turkey still has keen interest in developments in the Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq, including the Kirkuk and Mosul oilfields it once owned.

Turkey admits to being an interested party and justified its willingness to send troops on the ground that it was in its national interest to maintain a unified Iraq. It fears that a break-up of Iraq could lead to an independent Kurdistan in the north, and spark similar aspirations among its own Kurds who make up 20 per cent of its 70 million population.

A guerrilla war waged by Turkish Kurds against the government cost more than 30,000 lives before the military established control in Kurd-dominated regions four years ago. Some 5,000 Turkish Kurds are still believed holed up in mountains across the border in Iraq. Turkey deploys 1,000-strong special forces within Iraq.

Iraqi Kurds are emerging as a major force as they push for a strong Kurdish entity in a federal Iraq. They allied themselves with the US against Saddam Hussein as Turkey refused to join the invasion of Iraq in March despite persistent US demand.

Since then Kurds have been exerting greater authority in northern Iraq that also includes Arabs and an ethnic Turkish minority called Turkmens. They hold key portfolios in the interim government, including that of the foreign minister. Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani has recently taken over the rotating presidency of the 24-member Governing Council.

Iraqi Kurds voiced opposition to Turkish troops minutes after the Turkish parliament authorised the government to send troops to Iraq. Other Arab groups joined in.

The US was unable to sway Kurds to accept Turkish troops, leading Turkey’s Ambassador to Washington to comment that the US was favouring the Kurds. The State Department issued an official denial.

The US has assured Turkey publicly that it will work for the elimination of Kurdish guerrillas, but without specifying how. The main consolation for Turkey is that it complied with the US request. The move sought to restore the “strategic partnership” with the US that was shattered after its refusal to join the US invasion. —Dawn/InterPress News Service.