Turkish Daily News, 96-06-10

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From: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>

TURKISH DAILY NEWS
10 June 1996

CONTENTS

[01] Iraq opposes Provide Comfort comprising just Turkey and US

[02] PUK's Talabani claims Turkey is blackmailing with Provide Comfort

[03] Turkish officials angry over Arab call on Ankara to review its ties with Israel

[04] Denktas on Boutros-Ghali meeting

[01] Iraq opposes Provide Comfort comprising just Turkey and US

ANKARA- Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has sent a letter to France declaring his country's opposition to the withdrawal of French and British units from Operation Provide Comfort, leaving Turkey and the United States on their own to patrol northern Iraq.

Operation Provide Comfort (OPC) was set up by the Western powers in 1991 to protect Iraqi Kurds living in the north of the country against Saddam Hussein's forces. OPC has air fighters stationed at Incirlik Airbase in the southern Turkish city of Adana which patrol northern Iraq. It also has several officers deployed in northern Iraq to monitor Iraqi troop movements.

The mandate of OPC is extended at regular intervals by the Turkish Parliament. However, the latest extension was made on March 28 for a period of three months. The Turkish Parliament has to either extend the mandate at the end of June or scrap OPC. A majority of the parties represented in Parliament oppose OPC in its current form and want more Turkish control over the force and substantial changes in its status.

There are accusations that some French and British officers in OPC have been encouraging Kurds to set up a separate state in northern Iraq, and thus further fuel separatism among Turkey's Kurds living in southeastern Anatolia in areas bordering Iraq.

Iraq opposes OPC and sees it as a violation of its sovereignty. The Aziz letter to France, however, suggested that while Baghdad opposes OPC it is at least satisfied with French presence in the force as a moderating factor. Diplomatic sources who asked not to be identified said Iraq did not want OPC to be left in the hands of Turkey and the United States alone.

"Turks look more warmly on Saddam Hussein, while the United States has very strong views against him. If the French and the British depart, Turkey and the United States will be left alone and this will become a bilateral issue," the sources say.

The United States has been eager to convince Turks for a new extension. Diplomatic sources stress the United States does not want to see the French and the British leave OPC, while Turks insist on this. Talks between Turkey and the United States continue, but are described as "rather difficult."

OPC was set up after the Gulf War when Saddam Hussein's forces attacked Iraqi Kurdish towns and villages, and millions of refugees poured into Turkey and Iran. The force is not based on a United Nations mandate.

[02] PUK's Talabani claims Turkey is blackmailing with Provide Comfort

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Jalal Talabani, the leader of the northern Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and one of the region's key personalities, has accused Turkey of using its political hold over Operation Provide Comfort as a means to blackmail not just the Kurds but also its principle ally, the United States.

Talabani maintained that it would be better for the Kurds at this stage if the U.S.-led operation -- deployed in Southeast Anatolia to protect the northern Iraqi Kurds from Baghdad -- were moved out of Turkey all together and deployed in Jordan or Kuwait.

The PUK leader was answering questions put to him by the Turkish Daily News in Northern Iraq.

"I don't think that the Turkish politicians are serious when they are calling for the removal (of Provide Comfort). If I was in place of America I would say, okay, remove it and take it to Jordan or Kuwait to protect the Iraqi Kurds, and I would turn to Saddam Hussein and say, `If you are attacking the Kurds I will attack you, with missiles, with planes,'and I think Saddam Hussein will never dare to confront the United States," Talabani said.

[03] Turkish officials angry over Arab call on Ankara to review its ties with Israel

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Ankara remained low key over the weekend to a call by three major Arab states to review its recently concluded military accord with Israel.

Turkish officials contacted by the Turkish Daily News on Sunday, however, said that Turkey was not in a position to bow to pressures from any quarters on the question of which country it should develop ties with and which countries it should stay away from.

Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia on Saturday urged Ankara to reconsider its military deal with Israel which has prompted sharp criticism from Muslim states.

A statement issued by Presidents Hafez al-Assad of Syria, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah after a two-day summit, expressed "deep concern" over the accord which, according to Turkish press reports, allows Israeli warplanes to fly over Turkey.

"The leaders expressed hope that Turkey adopts a policy which goes in line with good neighborly ties, joint interests and respect of Arab interests," the statement reported by Reuters said.

"The leaders express their anxiety and concern over the recent Israeli-Turkish deal and demand Turkey reconsider this agreement," the statement said.

Turkish officials have played down the importance of the deal with Israel saying it is only an agreement on training. They said Ankara had signed many similar agreements with other states.

One Turkish official contacted by the TDN on Sunday pointed to the barely concealed support that Syria is providing the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is waging a bloody separatist campaign in Turkey, and underlined what he said was a "typical Arab double standard."

"They are in Damascus calling for good neighborly behaviour from Turkey and yet, Apo (the PKK leader) sits happily a few kilometers from where they are in a nice suburb of the city enjoying the protection of the Syria government" he said.

"Turkey has established relations with Israel that are perfectly legitimate in terms of international law and serve her own interests. We are not in a position to be dictated to, especially by a country that maintain illegal relations against a neighboring country," he added, referring to Syria and the protection it gives the PKK.

The official statement to be issued by Ankara to respond to the three Arab leaders in Damascus is expected to point out these aspects and reflect Turkey's answer.

The Turkish-Israeli accord signed in February by the outgoing government of Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres but supported strongly by prime minister elect Benjamin Netanyahu has also angered Islamist circles in Turkey.

The depth of the military cooperation between the two countries is unfolding daily as a new contact or a new arrangement is disclosed by one or the other of the sides.

Just this weekend Israeli state radio reported that Turkish fighter pilots had not so long ago been in Israel for training.

Quoting the radio report, the Anatolia news agency said the Turkish pilots had trained in LAVI fighter jets to familiarize themselves with the radar systems being produced by the Elta firm.

Anatolia said these radar systems were capable of being fitted on to F-4 Phantom jets belonging to the Turkish airforce.

[04] Denktas on Boutros-Ghali meeting

ISTANBUL- Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus President Rauf R. Denktas said publicly, following his meeting with United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, that he was optimistic about the future of talks with his counterpart from the Greek Cypriot side.

Speaking with the Turkish Daily News about their meeting, which lasted more than one hour, Denktas stressed that the importance of continuing to rely on the good offices of the UN secretary general for direct negotiations between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots.He added that this approach had the support of the United States but it was unfortunate that Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides had rejected it according to a report in the June 1 issue of the Cyprus Mail.

Denktas quoted from Clerides' memoirs, "My Deposition", as follows, "Just as the Greek Cypriot preoccupation was that Cyprus should be a Greek Cypriot state, with a protected Turkish Cypriot minority, the Turkish preoccupation was to defeat any such effort and to maintain the partnership concept, which in their opinion the Zurich Agreement .... created between the two communities. The conflict, therefore, was a conflict of principle and for that principle both sides were prepared to go on arguing and even, if need be, to fight rather than compromise".

Stressing that the Greek Cypriot preoccupation as expressed by Clerides had not changed since 1963 when the Greek Cypriots tossed the Turkish Cypriots out of the government which they jointly shared, Denktas noted that the process of integrating the island of Cyprus or at least the Greek Cypriot part in the economic and military spheres with mainland Greece was continuing unabated. And this "runs counter to all the concepts for a settlement on the basis of a bi-zonal, bi- communal federation".

Denktas said that he quoted from the Undersecretary of the Greek Ministry of Finance, Emmanuel Bendeniotis, as follows: "We want to emphasize that not only within the framework of the Common Defence Pact, but in financial areas as well, the financial and commercial relations between the two countries (South Cyprus and Greece) are excellent and strengthen ties between the two countries even further."

He also mentioned a comment reported in the Greek Cypriot daily, Fileftheros, from DISI Party leader Matsis as to how the bid to enter the European Union by the South would, upon being granted, ensure that European principles would be applied if there were a federal solution between the two communities. This would mean that all the freedoms of the citizens regardless of where they lived would be protected and would negate the protection of freedoms as proposed in high-level agreements. In short, Denktas continued, the UN proposed Set of Ideas as the basis of an agreement between North and South were no longer on the table.

According to the TRNC president, he told Boutros-Ghali that the issue was whether the Greek Cypriots still stood by earlier agreed upon parameters for holding direct negotiations and reaching an agreement or not. These parameters included a Cyprus in which both the Turkish and the Greek Cypriots shared the island as a common home; the two partners in the proposed federation would jointly decide which powers would be given to the federal government and which would be retained by the two federated states; the relationship between the two communities would be one of political equality; and the Treaties of Guarantee and of Alliance will continue as provided in the UN Set of Ideas.

In addition, confidence needed to be created before proceeding to a settlement; the membership of Cyprus in the European Union was to be established by referendum; property claims are to be settled by exchange and/or compensation; bizonality would be no dissolved or made ineffective under any pretext whatsoever; there is to be effective Turkish Cypriot participation in the central federal government; the decision at the Council of Ministers' level is to be reached by consensus; and any agreement which will be reached will be put to separate referendum on both sides.

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