Tareq Aziz visits Turkey to discuss U.S., British raids
Tareq Aziz visits Turkey to discuss U.S., British raids
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters): Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz swept into NATO-member Turkey on Sunday for a high profile visit to the country the United States uses as a launch- pad for air strikes on northern Iraq.
A convoy of 10 cars drove across Turkey's shabby Habur border crossing from the area of northern Iraq covered by a U.S.- patrolled "no-fly" zone. The delegation then flew on to Ankara.
Crossing by land through northern Iraq, outside Baghdad's direct control since after the 1991 Gulf War, carries deep symbolism for Aziz, who is to ask Turkey to withdraw its consent for U.S. and British warplanes to patrol from its territory.
Based at the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, the jets have attacked Iraqi air defenses in the north many times in recent weeks.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said on Friday he had no intention of preventing the flights, a pledge of continued loyalty to Washington which he renewed on Sunday.
"We will meet Aziz with goodwill and the warmth of a host. But everyone should know that our policy does not change because of a visit," Anatolian news agency quoted Cem as saying in the central town of Kayseri.
Turkish security officials said Aziz came to the Turkish border via the Iraqi city of Mosul, controlled by Baghdad and scene of recent clashes between Iraqi missile and anti-aircraft batteries and the F-16s and F-15s of the air patrols.
He then crossed into the Kurdish-held enclave of northern Iraq where Kurdish guerrillas escorted him to the border.
Habur is the only operating border crossing between the neighbors -- major trading partners before the Gulf War. Turkey says it has lost more than $30 billion in trade because of the embargo on Iraq and wants to help bring sanctions to an end.
The mountains and deep valleys of northern Iraq are controlled by two Kurdish factions whose intermittent feuding was brought to an end last year by a U.S.-sponsored peace deal.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit sees in that pact and the air patrols from Incirlik a U.S. policy that could lead to an independent Kurdish state on Turkey's southern border.
Ankara fears such a development would inflame Kurdish nationalism in its mainly Kurdish southeast. Aziz is expected to play on such fears to try to drive a wedge between Turkey and the United States.
Turkish soldiers are a semi-permanent presence in northern Iraq to prevent Kurdish rebels using the region as a base for attacks on Turkey.
The Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet said on Sunday Turkey would complain to Aziz that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has for 14 years fought a bitter war for self-rule in Turkey's southeast, had training camps in Baghdad-controlled territory.
The United States says it expects the Turkish government to make clear to Aziz that Iraq must comply with U.N. resolutions.