[A-List] US imperialism: Turkey

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Turkey offers bases if US foots the bill
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 10 October 2002

TURKEY is willing to provide bases as a launching pad for a US-led invasion
of Iraq - if the White House agrees to pick up the bill for higher-priced
oil imports and the loss of tourist revenue during hostilities.

Diplomats in Ankara estimate the impact of a regional conflict on the
Turkish economy at £100bn over the next decade. Support for the 1991 Gulf
campaign cost it £65bn.

The Turks are also seeking assurances that Kurdish extremists will not be
allowed to set up a separate state on their border, and US support for
rejecting Greek proposals for a federated solution on the divided island of
Cyprus.

The Turkish general staff has ordered its second army headquarters, the
command group responsible for security along its border with Iraq, to carry
out an assessment of whether it needs reinforcements to guarantee the
protection of Turkish territory. The move is aimed at controlling the exodus
of up to 500,000 refugees from northern Iraq once the fighting starts.

The Turkish Red Crescent Society, the equivalent of the Red Cross, favours
preparations for setting up four giant camps inside Kurdish-controlled
territory in northern Iraq to house, feed and provide medical care for
civilians displaced by fighting.

The use of Turkish bases as a springboard for a multi-pronged assault on
Saddam Hussein's regime is seen as vital. More than 100 US and British
aircraft already operate from Incirlik airbase near Adana to enforce the
northern no-fly zone over Iraq.

US special forces are understood to be inside the Kurdish enclave, advising
the local anti-Saddam peshmerga militia fighters and paving the way for an
advance on Baghdad via Turkey by conventional armoured units.

The Turks, who benefit from cheap oil smuggled out of Iraq to beat UN
sanctions, are drawing up a list of formal demands to be presented to the
US.