Turkish Leadership Weighs Second Vote on U.S. Troops

Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul summed up the demanding diplomatic problem in one sentence on Monday.

"Everything is fluid right now," Gul said.

The problem came flooding down on Saturday, when Gul's government fell three votes short in its effort to win parliamentary support for a U.S. request to deploy 62,000 troops on Turkish soil for a possible invasion of Iraq. Faced with the potential political damage caused by the vote, Turkish leaders began considering whether to hold a second vote on the matter, a vote in which the parliamentarians would have to vote as their party dictates and not their conscience.

Opinions on the next step differed after Saturday's vote. One top official in Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party, Eyup Fatsa, said the Parliament wasn't planning to take up the issue in the "foreseeable future."

But Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis indicated on Sunday that his government would ask the Parliament to vote a second time. After a marathon meeting of senior officials, Yakis told The New York Times that the resolution would be presented to the parliament this week.

Problems arise from rejection

The decision creates complications for both sides. The Turks stand to lose a $15 billion package of loans and grants, money that could help it fend off its worst recession since 1945. In reaction to the potential financial losses, the Turkish stock market plunged 12.5 percent on Monday.

The decision upsets the efforts of U.S. military planners as well. They have been hoping that they could launch a thrust into Iraq from neighboring Turkey. Experts say such a thrust launched in conjunction with an attack from the south in Kuwait could limit U.S. losses and shorten any war over Baghdad's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Ships bearing armor and supplies for the 4th Infantry Division have been waiting off Turkey's Mediterranean coast for days.

Despite the vote, the U.S. military is still hoping to win approval for the deployment, said Marine Gen. James Jones, the commander of U.S. forces in Europe and NATO's supreme allied commander Europe.

"Turkey is still the best option," Jones said in Stuttgart. If the deployment is not approved, the ships could be sent to the Persian Gulf via the Suez Canal, Jones said.

While the vote may have dismayed U.S. military leaders, it cheered the followers of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. In an editorial, a newspaper of Saddam's Baath Party praised the Turkey's "democratic decision" and urged the government not to cave in to U.S. pressure.

"The Americans claim to respect democracy. Why then is this proposal supposed to be presented to the parliament again, as indicated by Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and the U.S. media?" asked the newspaper, Al Thaura.

NATO takes up aid question

The vote was one of two military issues that Turkish officials were considering on Monday. The second involves the amount of aid that Turkey's allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are willing to provide to help the Turkish military ward off any possible attack from Iraq. After a stiff fight last month, the alliance's leadership was able to push through a U.S. request that alliance members would provide Turkey with reconnaissance aircraft, air-defense missiles and troops who specialize in combating nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Germany has provided 46 Patriot air-defense missiles and about 30 crew members for the airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft. German Defense Minster Peter Struck said on Thursday that Germany would not provide any more assistance. "I think we have done enough for Turkey," Struck said.

By Monday afternoon, the alliance's military leadership was been unable to pull together support on the request, a spokesman told the German news agency dpa. The leaders asked the countries to reconsider their positions, the spokesman said.

The NATO commanders were met behind closed doors at the alliance's military headquarters in Mons, Belgium, a small city about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Brussels.

The commanders are considering the possibility that Iraq still has Scud missiles with a range of more than 300 kilometers. The London Institute of Strategic Studies also has raised the possibility that Iraq covert training planes into unmanned bombs that could fly even greater distances.

"The worries are justified. The threat (to Turkey) is real," a NATO analysis says.