Word: ankara
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...that Pentagon planners had anticipated. Right up to a few weeks before the start of hostilities, plans had called for the 4th Infantry Division to advance from Turkey through northern Iraq. Administration officials, especially Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who led the negotiations with Ankara, had believed that Turkey would support the U.S. But the prospect of war in Iraq was deeply unpopular in Turkey, and on March 1, the Turkish parliament, dominated by the Islamist A.K. (Justice and Development) Party, turned the U.S. down...
Diplomats and observers in Ankara allocate responsibility for the fiasco in many ways: some blame inexperienced A.K. ministers who overplayed their hand with the U.S., while others point the finger at Wolfowitz, who, say his critics, never understood that with the election of the A.K., military and secular leaders with strong ties to the U.S. no longer monopolized power. Says Emin Sirin, an A.K. parliamentary deputy and Istanbul businessman: "The Americans thought that if you talk to two or three people, you have Turkey in your hands. The whole system has changed, and they didn't appreciate that...
...Decision time TURKEY The country's unpredictable parliament is expected to vote as early as this week on a U.S. request to send up to 11,000 troops to Iraq. Given that Turkey rejected an American request to admit U.S. troops to Turkish soil before the war, officials in Ankara are not forecasting the outcome. But there are reasons to believe that the result will be different this time. Turkey's armed forces and the pro-Islamic government both realize that failing Washington again could endanger Turkey's economy, says Dogu Ergil, a political scientist at Ankara University. They also...
...India, Pakistan and Turkey may have previously cited absence of a UN mandate as a reason to keep their troops at home, but their calculations were primarily domestic. Such sweeteners as this week's $8 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. Treasury to Turkey may help persuade Ankara to send some 10,000 troops - to the alarm of the Kurdish parties on the Iraqi Governing Council - and South Korea may be persuadable to add to its current deployment of 700 non-combatant troops, if the price is right. Prospects of getting significant forces from Pakistan and India appear more...
Rebels Retract TURKEY The Kurdish rebel group PKK called off a four-year cease-fire, accusing the government of failing to reciprocate. The move threatened to upset talks between Ankara and Pentagon officials on the possible deployment of Turkish troops to Iraq. Washington has not yet fulfilled its promise to eject the estimated 5,000 PKK militants believed to be based in northern Iraq...