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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
ister: Joschka Fischer, told reporters.
"But I think that is the wrong discussion.
The question is, what must we do
so that we do not come to the use of military,means,"
he added.
Koti Annan, the UN secretary-general,
addressed the leaders about the
"very precarious" hu~anitarian situ-
, ation looming in the Iraqi crisis and
urged them to go through with contin-
,'gency planning in case of war.
Annan said afterward that he was
concerned with tensions in the trans-
Atlantic relationship ,and that these
could be resolved to a large degree if the
question ofIraq were resolved.
He also urged leaders not to ignore
prQblems outside the Middle East. saying,
"what happens in Iraq will not hap;.
pen in a vacuum."
'
In the daysleading up to the summit
meeting, leaders had disagreed on the
guest list. Britain and Spain sought to
invite the 10 mostly East European
countries scheduled to join the Union
, next y;ear- most of them relatively pro-
Amencan and not averse to a hard line
on Iraq.
France and GeQDany lobbied successfully
to have these countries ex-
, cluded - an argument that won the day
when Greece, which currently holds the
Union's rotating presidency, invited the
10countries scheduled to join next May
for a briefing about the meeting Tuesday
- but not to the meeting itself.
Tu,.key Demands $32 Billion U.S.Aid Packcige
if It Is to Take Part in a War on Iraq
By DEXTER FILKINS
with ERIC SCHMITT
ISTANBUL, Feb. 18- Turkish and
American officials continued their
diplomatic brinkmanship today, as
the.Turks said they were waiting for
the Bush administration to answer
their demand for an economic aid
package worth as much as $32billion
to ensure their participation in a war
with Iraq.
The American ambassador to Turkey,
Robert Pearson, was summoned
to the Turkish Foreign Ministry after
10 p.m. on Monday and handed the
proposal, which he forwarded to
Washington; American officials said.
The Turkish request is about $6
'billion higher than what. American
officials said over the weekend was
their final offer. Of the $26 billion
Washington has offered, $20 billion is
in loan guarantees and $6 billion in
direct grants. Although a Western
diplomat said the Turks were seeking
about $10 billion in direct aid, the
White House is adamant that $6 billion
is the limit for direct aid.
It remains to be seen whether negotiations
will begin anew or whether
the administration's plan to use
Turkey as a launching pad for an
invasion of northern Iraq will fall
through. That prospeét seemed to
put an unusual strain on the relationship
between the longtime allies, who
have been speaking of each other in
increasingly harsh tones.
As of this evening, Turkish offi- '
,cialssaid they had received no answer
from the Americans. As the day'
. began in Washington, Ari Fleischer,
President Bush's spokesman, called
on the Turkish leaders to approve the
deal that the Americans had put in
front of them.
"We continue to work with Turkey
, as a friend, but it is decision time,"
Mr. Fleischer said.
As Mr: Fleischer spoke, senior administration
officials gathered at the
White House to discuss the Turkish
proposal, still hoping, at least in public,
that. Turkish, leaders would approve
the smaller economic package.
That seemed increasingly unlikely
here, as the day passed without a
vote by Parliament on the deployment
of American combat troops.
Turkish officials had scheduled one,
but canceled it on Monday, saying
they would go forward only after
they reached an agreement on an
economic aid package.
There is a growing sense on both
sides that time is running short.
American military planners have
drawn up two sets of war plans: one
, that includes Turkey as a staging
area and one that does not.
Two senior American military officials
said today that without Turkish
consent by the end of the week, the
Pentagon would be forced to shift to
a less desirable backup plan.
'~Two or three more days is about
all that's left," said one of the senior
officials.
With ships carrying equipment for
more than 15,000 soldiers of the
Fourth Infantry Division now approaching
Turkish ports, the military
can wait only so long before
planners need to divert the equip-
. ment to the Persian Gulf iri time to
• unload it and have it ready for troops
, there by early March.
Turkish leaders publicly warned
, that they might ultimately refuse to
;take part in an American operation
,against Iraq. In a speech that
'seemed intended for an American
audience, Tayyip Erdogan, the leader:of
the majority Justice and Devel-
.opment Party, said Parliament's retei:tt
vote authorizing American engin~rs
'to upgrade Turkish military
, bases did not mean that the Turks
would agree to open their bases to
thousands of American troops.
"Our American friends should not
interpret this decision to mean that
Turkey has embarked on an irreversible
road," Mr. Erdogan said.
"It is not possible for us to accept
anything which we don't approve of,
which we don't believe as necessary
or which we can't explain to our
people."
Pentagon officials, seeking to put
the best face on a bad situation, said
that starting a northern offensive
from ~urkey, while desirable, was
not esst:l1i.ialto victory.
But officials clearly want to move
ahead, one way or another, Paul D.
Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary,
told a Turkish reporter last
week that ships ferrying American
soldiers were in the Mediterranean
Sea and could not wait indefinitely
for an agreement.
"We can no longer keep our troops
waiting on ships, wandering around
the eastern Mediterranean," Mr.
Wolfowitz said in the interview,
printed in Hurriyet, a Turkish newspaper.
Without a decision soon, he
said, "it is highly likely that we
would order our ships in the eastern
Mediterranean to shift their direction
to the gulf."
The deadlock seemed to grow out
of the belief, held by each country,
that it holds the upper hand in the
, negotiations. Turkish leaders believe
, that the Americans, whatever they
.say privately, desperately need the
country's participation in a war
agains~ Iraq.
It is not just that a northern front
would make an invasion easier, it is
that Turkey is a Muslim country that
is democratic and secular - precisely
the kind of government the Eush
administration hopes an invasion of .
Iraq might help bring about in other
comers of the Middle East .
At the same time, the Turkish public
overwhel.mingly opposes a war.
For many hère, the potential war
with Iraq seems to promise a repeat
of the Persian Gulf war of 1991,when
Turkey was swamped with half a
million refugees and its trade with
Iraq plummeted.
, For their part, the Americans believe
that Turkey carinot afford to
turnthem down, and that Turkey's
ieaders will ultimately understand
that. .
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