18
March 2003
1. "KADEK: 'The Kurdish question is a subject of not prosecution but solution'", KADEK criticized the ECHR ruling on the Case of the Century, saying, "The ruling is even a deviation as it pretends not to see the international conspiracy and the fact that the national leader of the Kurdish people is prosecuted." "ECHR could present to Turkey a perspective on the resolution to the Kurdish question," wrote the statement.
2. "DEHAP: We condemn the unlawfulness", Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) released a written statement, reacting to the charges filed by the Supreme Court's Chief Judge Sabih Kanadoglu to outlaw their party and the ruling of the Constitutional Court to close down HADEP.
3. "Turkey and the advent of the 'mercenary state'", by Abdelwahab El-Affendi. (Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster).
4. "Turkey to reconsider US troop ban", Northern frontier for war on Iraq may be opened for Americans. (…)Turkey's cabinet in urgent meeting over support for US war plans.
5. "Turkey's Kurds losing patience with Bush as Iraq war nears", they want U.S. to back independence but fear being caught up in fight.
6. "Turkey pledges 'urgent steps' as markets plunge", Turkey said last night that it would take "urgent steps to preserve its national interests" after its fragile financial markets plunged yesterday on fears the government had missed the chance to receive a massive US war compensation package.
1. - Kurdish Observer - "KADEK: 'The Kurdish question is a subject of not prosecution but solution'":
KADEK criticized the ECHR ruling on the Case of the Century, saying, "The ruling is even a deviation as it pretends not to see the international conspiracy and the fact that the national leader of the Kurdish people is prosecuted." "ECHR could present to Turkey a perspective on the resolution to the Kurdish question," wrote the statement.
FRANKFURT/MHA / 17 March 2003
A written statement released by the KADEK Presidential Council reminded
that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had found the Imrali
trial as being in violation of the European Human Rights Convention
(EHRC), saying that the ECHR ruling was positive in determining that
Turkey violation international laws and human rights norms but clearly
at fault as far as the situation of KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan
was concerned. "The ruling is even a deviation as it pretends not
to see the international conspiracy and the fact that the national leader
of the Kurdish people is prosecuted," added the Council.
KADEK called attention that Ocalan had applied to officials to continue his political life in Italy or Greece and no court in Europe had ruled to deport him or surrender him to another country, adding the following: "Our President has been forced to leave Europe as a result of unlawful political pressures and economic interests and delivered to Turkish intelligence officials by the international conspiracy."
It became a part of the conspiracy
The Presidential Council attracted attention that the conviction on Imrali had not any legitimacy as far as they were concerned as their president was interrogated and prosecuted by piracy and international conspiracy. KADEK had this to say: "As the Imrali court has not any authority to prosecute ECHR should have stated that the verdict was totally baseless. Our President repeated time and again that he wanted to be prosecuted by an international court together with Turkey. ECHR could have demanded his restoration to Europe and ruled that he should be tried in Europe under international laws and present a perspective to Turkey on the resolution to the Kurdish question. The court did not ruled any of these, moreover it became a part of the international conspiracy by pretending not to see it. Therefore we find the ruling both wrong and unfair."
ECHR engaged only with violations of procedure
The statement pointed out that the European countries that had contributed to the crimes against the Kurdish people for 80 years and also participated in the international conspiracy were covered, and the ECHR court had been an instrument to the Turkey's policy of denial by engaging only with legal procedures and by not ruling that the Imrali trial was baseless. The statement continued with words to the effect: For a legal system that denies Kurds the biggest crime is for Kurds to demand their democratic rights. The fact that HEP, DEP, OZDEP and HADEP were closed down is the ultimate expression of it. The DEP deputies have been in prison for a decade. The court was expected to decide that the national leader of Kurds could not be prosecuted by a legal system that denies Kurds. Under the Turkish constitution and laws it is a crime to assemble for the Kurdish democratic rights. And doing so for the Leadership is even a greater crime. The Turkish legal system does not accept the universal law and human rights norm. Therefore dismissing the case according to legal procedures has been an overlooking to the essence of the case.
"That ECHR took up our President as an individual person is a superficiality too. Thousands of people in Kurdistan carried their cases to ECHR for human rights violations. The court condemned Turkey in hundreds of cases."
The Grand Chamber must play its role"
"ECHR should have seen the facts and took up the Kurdish question not as a subject of prosecution and a matter to be solved and played a role for the solution," The Presidential Council noted. "Such an approach would have been an example in showing the capacity of the universal law and human rights. The Kurdish people had expected this. It has been once more witnessed, however, that law has been nonfunctional for 80 years as far as the Kurdish people is concerned. But there is still an opportunity for the universal law to play its historical role. The Grand Chamber can see the case as the most basic lock and put the key of law to the lock. Our people, all democratic people who wants the prevailance of law and human rights expect it from the Grand Chamber."
KADEK referred to the Turkish state and its government
on the matter, saying, "Our call to the Turkish state is to amend
its law and take steps towards the resolution of the Kurdish question.
We declare once again that we, together with our President, shall do
our best to help all institutions and states that wants to take steps."
2. - Ozgur Politika - "DEHAP: We condemn the unlawfulness":
FRANKFURT/MHA / 17 March 2003
Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) released a written statement,
reacting to the charges filed by the Supreme Court's Chief Judge Sabih
Kanadoglu to outlaw their party and the ruling of the Constitutional
Court to close down HADEP. The statement said that banning HADEP could
not be explained to the public, saying "Unjust treatment of millions
of HADEP members and sympathizers will be forever on their conscience.
We condemn the anti-democratic treatment and unlawfulness against HADEP
and DEHAP with hatred." DEHAP also called on the political parties,
trade unions and non-governmental organisations to show their democratic
reactions.
Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) released a written statement, reacting to the charges filed by the Supreme Court's Chief Judge Sabih Kanadoglu to outlaw their party and the ruling of the Constitutional Court to close down HADEP. The statement said that banning HADEP could not be explained to the public, saying "Unjust treatment of millions of HADEP members and sympathizers will be forever on their conscience. We condemn the anti-democratic treatment and unlawfulness against HADEP and DEHAP with hatred." DEHAP also called on the political parties, trade unions and non-governmental organisations to show their democratic reactions.
"Turkey cannot carry such an unlawfulness"
DEHAP continued with following words: "Turkey cannot carry such a shame and an unlawfulness anymore. If the case that had lasted nearly 5 years had concrete and convincing evidences, the party would be already closed down. Its correspondence to this process proves that the ruling is a political one."
The statement stressed that HADEP had contributed to the politics in spite of the heavy costs it had had to pay for seeking a resolution to the Kurdish question. "Therefore it is not easy to erase HADEP from the minds, it has millions of members and sympathizers, thousands of local administrators, 37 mayors and members of councils. Even the relevant articles of the Constitution and the Law on Political Parties prove that the case has not a legal aspect," wrote the statement.
Action in Aydin
On the other hand about 150 kisi gathered in front of Aydin HADEP provincial office condemned the political ban imposed on 46 HADEP administrators and members for 5 years and the ban on the party.
HADEP's Aydin Provincial Secretary Nihat Demir gave a talk, saying that the outlawing of their parties was a reflection of the denial of policy. He stated that it was not a coincidence that their party was closed down at this process and the state had displayed its stance on the societal peace, democratization and the European Union. Demir stressed that HADEP was outlawed as it upheld peace, democracy and equality as basic principles. "HADEP has exerted much effort to establish societal peace, free individual, democratic society and the state of law," said Demir.
SES condemned the ban
And Health Workers' Union (SES) made a written statement
condemning the ban on HADEP. The statement attracted attention that
political parties are indispensible institutions of democracy, saying,
"Everybody has the right to assembly and to seek power -without
violation. It cannot be prevented by bans."
3. - The Daily Star(Lebanon) - "Turkey and the advent of the 'mercenary state':
18 March 2003 / by Abdelwahab El-Affendi
During the apartheid era in South Africa, the Johannesburg regime
approached an African country to negotiate overflying rights for its
national airline, which was affected by boycott resolutions.
Senior South African officials offered generous incentives to the impoverished
African adversary, but their main weapon was what they thought was a
clinching argument: "You should know," the head of the delegation
told his counterpart, "that our aircraft would not reach your country
unless they have overflown all the African states in between."
Needless to say, the apartheid regime got what it wanted.
There are numerous indications that the United States and Britain are using similar tactics in trying to persuade recalcitrant UN Security Council members to vote their way on the proposed resolution authorizing war on Iraq. Impoverished and embattled Third World nations are being offered generous incentives if they "comply" and threatened with dire consequences if they choose the other side.
But one central argument is that Washington is going to go to war anyway, and is certain to win it. Therefore any state's anti-war stance isn't going to prevent Iraq's invasion; it would only harm the interests of that country and cause it to lose its share of the spoils. It is thus more prudent to haggle for the most any state can get for its support and leave the rest for the powers that be to deal with.
It is most likely that these tactics will work with countries
like Angola, Cameroon, Chile and Pakistan, who have nothing to gain
directly from opposing the war and much to lose by crossing America.
But one country that seems to have seen the writing on the wall earlier
than most is Turkey, which prudently (or cynically) tried to cash in
on a war it cannot prevent. It did receive, by all accounts, the promise
of a generous dividend in both economic and political terms, with a
$30 billion financial package and measures to protect its perceived
national interests in a post-Saddam Iraq. In other words, Turkey has
been made an offer it can't refuse.
The problem is that both the Turkish government and people oppose the war on principle. The new government elected last November made clear from it first day in office that it was opposed to war. It engaged in pro-active regional diplomacy to try to promote a consensus on this. The effort proved futile, since the countries it assembled to try to work out a formula to avert war on Iraq were already deeply involved in the confrontation.
Although every Arab and Muslim state has now committed
itself to overt opposition to the coming war, the majority of the six
countries (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Turkey) that
met in Istanbul last January have already provided facilities for American
troops to invade Iraq. It is safe to say that without these facilities
and acquiescence, the American war on Iraq would not have been an option.
The two countries that did not overtly provide significant facilities
for American troops (Egypt and Jordan) are so dependent on US aid that
it would be inconceivable for them to form the spearhead of resistance
to an American war on Iraq. Kuwait was prudently not invited to the
Istanbul meeting. But even Kuwait continues to pay lip service to the
Arab League and Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) consensus
opposing the war, while in practice offering possible support for it.
It is not known whether Turkey has decided to side with the war camp because of the realization that it is going to be alone in opposing it in deed rather than words, or whether it has just found the combination of intense US pressure and the temptation to make a killing (pardon the expression) out of the war too hard to resist. In all cases, it would have been madness for Turkey not to accept the American offer.
But this is exactly where the problem lies. There is a worldwide consensus against this war, which also happens to be opposed by over 90 percent of Turks.
What would be left of the moral dimension of the international order if the fundamental connection between politics and ethics is severed in this brutal manner?
Are we witnessing an era when the state acts more or less in the same disreputable way mercenaries did in the final days of the colonial era offering their services to the highest bidder regardless of any moral considerations?
This would appear to be the case at the moment. There is a threat that the state has succumbed to this crisis not only in the typically marginalized Third World, but in the West as well.
In Britain, Italy and Spain the most enthusiastic
European countries in favor the overwhelming majority of citizens
reject the official stance on the war. In Arab and Muslim states, the
bulk of the populations and all governments have come out in opposition
to the war. Yet these declared wishes are being ignored, probably because
an additional dimension of immorality is at work here: hypocrisy by
leaders who oppose the war in public and support it in private, and
therefore must be lying to someone.
We not only have a divorce between force and morality, but between force
and the people of the planet. The main advantage of modern democracies
has been to create a link between ethics and politics and between the
people and politics that many ancient theoreticians up to and including
the notorious Machiavelli thought could never be achieved. It would
appear that we are back where we started.
In a recent comment on modern imperialism, Noam Chomsky recounted the famous anecdote of Alexander the Great's encounter with a pirate who protested that he was being condemned only because he did not have enough ships and men to classify as emperor. Otherwise both he and his judge were pirates on some scale. That, of course, is nonsense.
But as things stand today, the only valid argument against terrorists such as Osama bin Laden appears to be that they don't have enough bombs to do the job. It is a truly terrifying world to live in.
London-based Abdelwahab El-Affendi is a Senior Fellow
at the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster.
He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star.
4. - The Guardian / AFP - "Turkey to reconsider US troop ban":
Northern frontier for war on Iraq may be opened for Americans
WASHINGTON/ANKARA / 18 March 2003 / by Julian Borger
and Jonny Dymond for the Guardian and Hande Culpan for AFP
The Turkish government last night revived US hopes that American
forces may be given access to Turkish territory, airspace and airbases,
amid predictions that an emergency parliamentary vote may be called
in the next few days.
The vote could have an immediate impact on US war plans if it approved
overflight rights for war planes launched from two US aircraft carriers
in the Mediterranean, military experts said.
But they added that the decision, even if it went Washington's way, had almost certainly come too late to allow US troops to reach Iraq's northern borders before the war starts.
A spokesman for Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer said the vote, which would allow US forces to open a northern front in the looming war with Iraq, was being considered urgently.
"A unanimous decision was reached ... that there is a need to move urgently," said Tacan Ildem. Asked when parliament would submit a new resolution, Mr Ildem said: "Our government will make the necessary evaluation urgently."
The meeting included the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top officials as well as the military chief, General Hilmi Ozkok. Two weeks ago, the Turkish parliament narrowly rejected a request for deployment of over 60,000 US troops. Until last night, it had been assumed that a second attempt at a vote would not take place before next week.
Mr Erdogan had said he wanted his new government to win a vote of confidence in parliament before any new motion on the deployment of troops was considered. But following the meeting last night, that timetable is in doubt. The government has faced mounting ressure to reverse parliament's earlier decision.
The US had offered more than £10bn in aid and loans in exchange for use of Turkish soil and air bases. Turkish financial markets slumped after deployment was blocked. Late last week America, alarmed that its access to Turkish air space was in doubt, moved 10 ships and submarines out of the eastern Mediterranean to the Red Sea, from where missiles could be fired at Iraq through Saudi Arabian airspace.
The US has so far kept two of its aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean. The Jordanian government will not allow planes to cross into Jordan from Israel, but even if Turkey continues to deny overflight rights, planes could fly through Egypt and into Jordan, avoiding Israel.
There are also three dozen ships in the Mediterranean carrying equipment for the US 4th Infantry Division and waiting for Turkish approval to unload.
Patrick Garrett, at thinktank, GlobalSecurity.org, said: "It would take a week and a half to get the equipment into position, so the 4th Infantry Division will probably have to be a stabilisation force."
Michael O'Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution, said the US government was in no mood to delay its plans to wait for Turkey's decisions.
In place of the 4th Infantry Division, it is thought likely the Pentagon would dispatch a lighter airborne force to take control of northern Iraq. One of that force's tasks would be to prevent clashes between Turkish and Kurdish forces along the northern border.
In the past few weeks, Turkey had reached agreement with the US to move its troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq alongside American forces. Turkey is concerned that during or after a war, the Kurdish groups which control northern Iraq might create an autonomous state.
Australia, which has sent 2,000 troops, fighter jets and warships to the Gulf, will fight in a war against Iraq if America launches military action, prime minister John Howard said. "This decision was taken at a cabinet meeting following a further telephone discussion between myself and President Bush," he added.
Turkey's cabinet in urgent meeting over support for
US war plans (AFP)
The Turkish government was to hold a special meeting on Tuesday morning
to decide on the content of a new motion to parliament on support for
US military operations against Iraq. The United States had been asking
for a Turkish green light to use its territory as a launch pad for attacks
on Iraq, but the parliament in Ankara narrowly rejected a first motion
on the deployment of 62,000 US soldiers in Turkey on March 1, hampering
Washington's plans to invade Iraq from the north.
Since then, Turkey -- where public opinion remains strongly opposed to war in Iraq -- had said it was in no hurry to consider calling a second vote on the issue, causing frustration in Washington. But the US deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq within 48 hours or face war has finally sprung a weary Ankara into action. At a meeting late Monday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, several cabinet ministers and top bureaucrats decided a second motion was required to help the United States.
"The cabinet will meet in a special session to discuss the motion," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener said at the end of the meeting early Tuesday, the Anatolia news agency reported. He gave no details as to what a new motion might request and when it might be voted on, but the Turkish press suggested it might be submitted to parliament Tuesday, paving the way for a possible vote on Wednesday or Thursday.
"War motion on the way," the Radikal newspaper said in its banner headline Tuesday, while the Sabah daily said: " Yes to the United States". Several Turkish newspapers suggested a new motion might only allow for the opening of Turkish air space to US planes and for the dispatch of a small number of US special forces to northern Iraq. Others suggested the government would submit the same motion as that rejected on March 1, which also called for the dispatch of Turkish soldiers to northern Iraq.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed hope that Ankara would be receptive to US requests for permission to deploy troops there and to allowing US planes to use Turkish air space in the event of a conflict. "We are in the closest touch with them now on a number of issues: one, (on) the possibility of resubmission and he (Erdogan) is committed to do that at a time that he believes is appropriate," Powell said. The government decision led to an immediate rebound on Turkey's shaky financial markets, which had tumbled a day earlier over fears that Ankara would stay out of a US-led war in Iraq and forefeit a six-billion-dollar aid package vital to offset any war-related damages to its economy.
In early trading on Tuesday, shares gained 10.1 percent
-- making up for Monday's 10.5 percent loss -- while the Turkish lira
regained a little strength against the dollar, retreating from 1.713
million to 1.640 million against the greenback. Both Erdogan and the
chief of the influential Turkish army have previously argued in favour
of Turkey's involvement in any conflict in Iraq in a bid to protect
its security interests and have a say in the future of Iraq. Turkey
has long expressed concern over the future status of Iraq's Kurdish-held
north, which has been outside Baghdad's control since the 1991
Gulf war.
Ankara fears that the region's breakaway Kurds could take advantage of a war to declare independence in their enclave, a move which could encourage separatism among their kinsmen in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey wants to send thousands of troops into northern
Iraq in case of a war to thwart any Kurdish bid for independence but
Washington has warned Ankara against acting unilaterally. Later Tuesday,
the US envoy to the Iraqi opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, was scheduled
to meet Turkish diplomats and Iraqi Kurdish leaders in a bid to ease
tensions over Ankara's plans for northern Iraq.
5. - The Baltimore Sun - "Turkey's Kurds losing patience with Bush as Iraq war nears":
They want U.S. to back independence but fear being caught up in fight
CIZRE / by 18 March 2003 / by Douglas Birch
Here in the land of Noah, where the rich plains of Mesopotamia begin,
people are upset with President Bush, as are people throughout the region.
The difference here is that Kurds who live in this remote corner of
Turkey take the long view of history and the world: They think of the
president as family.
Never mind that Bush, the descendant of American blue
bloods, considers himself a Texan. People here say that the American
president - like everyone else - can trace his lineage to these lands
near the point where the borders of Turkey, Syria and Iraq meet. And
they worry that he is about to bring serious trouble upon them.
All of the people living in the world are from here, the Kurds say,
because after the flood, everyone came from here. The flood they refer
to so intimately, of course, was the one where it rained for 40 days
and 40 nights. After that global catastrophe, according to the Jewish,
Christian and Muslim traditions, the only survivors were Noah and his
family, who had built an ark to serve as a lifeboat for all the Earth's
creatures.
If Bush is related to the Kurds, he is trying the patience of many of his distant cousins here. As a result of the White House's apparent determination to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with force, the residents of this area could end up embroiled in a deadly scramble for power, land and oil in the coming days.
About 20 million Kurds live in a mountainous area, parts of which are controlled by Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. They have been called the world's largest nation without a country and have long been persecuted by the governments that rule them.
Separatist guerrillas
Many of Turkey's Kurds oppose a war because they are weary of warfare: For most of the past two decades, Kurdish separatist guerrillas have fought Turkish troops in this region. Turkish soldiers man checkpoints and patrol streets in the region.
At the same time, many Kurds here want Bush to support Kurdish aspirations for an independent state in northern Iraq. Kurdish groups across the border control and administer a portion of northern Iraq protected by one of the no-fly zones set up by the United States and its allies after the first gulf war.
Without an independent Kurdish state, one Kurd asked, "who will defend us?"
But the Turkish government opposes the idea, saying it could reignite separatist passions among Turkey's Kurds. Instead, political leaders in Ankara, Turkey's capital, say they want to move into northern Iraq to create a "buffer zone" to prevent Kurdish guerrilla attacks.
The Iraqi Kurds, meanwhile, have threatened to battle any Turkish troops who enter their territory. They suspect that Turkey's real aim is to grab Iraq's rich oil fields in Mosul and Kirkuk.
Angry with America 
On Sunday, Kurdish groups staged a rally in Silopi marking the 15th
anniversary of one of Saddam Hussein's most notorious war crimes: the
use of chemical weapons to kill 5,000 Kurds in the northern Iraqi town
of Halabja in March 1988.
Yet the United States was bitterly criticized at the rally. Many Kurds blame the United States and Europe for letting Halabja happen. And they say Western corporations sold the Iraqi dictator the technical means to make the weapon in the first place.
"The United Nations and the United States closed their eyes to these crimes," a leader of the Kurdish Democratic Social Party told the crowd, under the watchful eyes of scores of police. "All the world, even the United Nations, was silent."
Another Kurdish man in Silopi, speaking privately, muttered his agreement. "Are you deaf, Europeans and Americans?" he said. "In five seconds, 5,000 people died. Where were you?"
Although the Kurds of this region are threatened with violence, many are also afflicted by poverty.
During most of the 1980s and 1990s, clashes between government and guerrilla forces drove thousands of Kurdish villagers into cities. Many spent their savings, sold their valuables and bought trucks to haul goods across Iraq's wide-open border.
But after Sept. 11, the Turkish government shut the border to most of the trade because of security concerns. Thousands of truck drivers were thrown out of work.
Today, their rusting trucks are parked in fields and alleyways all along the road to the border. Controls have become even tighter in recent months, apparently shutting off all but a trickle of traffic.
Some here hoped that a war against Baghdad would create a windfall for the region. The Pentagon had asked permission to send the 4th Infantry Division through the land of Noah into northern Iraq, opening a second front. In exchange, the White House was prepared to give Turkey grants and loans of about $15 billion.
But Turkey's parliament, faced with overwhelming public hostility to the war, balked and rejected the deal. (United States military planners still hope to base special forces here and use Turkish airspace for overflights.)
Noah and the flood
The story of Noah - called "Nuh" here - and the Great Flood has deep roots in the region. According to local legend, the ark came to rest on top of an anvil-shaped peak in the Cudi Mountains, which loom above the banks of the Tigris River. Noah and his family supposedly founded the village of Hestiyan in the nearby foothills. And Noah is said to be buried here in Cizre, an ancient trading town.
The patriarch's supposed tomb sits off a market square where vendors sell plastic dolls and sunglasses. Inside the gleaming blue-tiled structure sits the huge sarcophagus made of intricately carved and inlaid boxwood - said to be the same material used to build the ark.
In peaceful times, a trickle of foreign visitors stops at Noah's tomb every day. With war in the air, though, there are few tourists. A few devout women from Cizre, dressed head to toe in black, stopped in for prayers.
Aster Imok, cook at a nearby soup kitchen for poor families, wandered in, wearing a torn sweater. Of course, Kurds in the area are proud of the memorial, a symbol of the human race's resilience - even in the face of the gravest disasters.
"After the floodwaters drained," Imok pointed
out, "He began the world all over again."
6. - Financial Times - "Turkey pledges 'urgent steps' as markets plunge":
ANKARA / WASHINGTON / 18 March 2003 / by Leyla Boulton
and Guy Dinmore 
Turkey said last night that it would take "urgent steps to preserve
its national interests" after its fragile financial markets plunged
yesterday on fears the government had missed the chance to receive a
massive US war compensation package.
A spokesman for the Turkish president, speaking after a meeting between President Ahmet Necdet Sezar, the prime minister, foreign minister and top military chief, did not spell out what measures might be taken. However, officials and diplomats expected the government to agree to at least some limited support for the imminent US-led attack on neighbouring Iraq, such as permitting US use of Turkish airspace.
It was not clear whether the government might accelerate its timetable for asking parliament to vote again on the deployment of 62,000 US troops or possibly a smaller number. Some observers maintain that neither the use of airspace nor the deployment of US troops could go ahead without a vote in parliament.
Earlier, as the Turkish lira hit a record low and interest rates shot up, investors worried that the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) had missed the opportunity to call a second vote on US troop deployment after a failed motion two weeks ago.
The government must redeem the equivalent of $3bn (£1.9bn) in domestic debt this week and it could face sharply raised interest rates at important debt auctions due today and tomorrow. The US package, equivalent to $24bn in cheap loans, would have given Turkey breathing space on its $100bn public-sector debt this year and next. The package had become all the more important to markets after the AKP undermined confidence in a $16bn standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the newly appointed prime minister, said at the weekend that the question of troop deployment would be revisited after his cabinet received a vote of confidence, expected today.
Parliamentary procedure implies that a new vote on troop deployment can in theory take place only on Sunday.
Before last night's emergency meeting, Cemil Cicek, the justice minister, said: "We are following developments very closely . . . There is nothing to worry about." But he hinted at some government concern, telling journalists that "the Iraq issue cannot be boiled down to a simple parliamentary vote. You [the media] should be helpful to us."
Reports in the Turkish media suggested that the government was worried that a renewed vote on US troop deployment could trigger the defection of AKP deputies to other parties. Given overwhelming public opposition to a war, there was also a practical issue: "Suppose the government were to lose a second vote on troop deployment before receiving a vote of confidence from parliament?" asked Ilnur Cevik, a newspaper editor, AKP member and long-standing friend of Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister. "They would face a real practical and moral problem." But even Mr Cevik, normally sympathetic to the AKP, was bewildered by the government's stance. "They have to see the real world as it is," he said, citing the AKP's Islamist roots as part of the problem.
Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, indicated yesterday that the US had not abandoned all hope that Turkey would allow access to US troops. He said Mr Erdogan had committed himself to resubmit to parliament the issue of access for US troops "at a time that he believes is appropriate".
The US was "very sensitive to Turkish concerns", Mr Powell said. But, referring to Turkey's demands to send its own troops into northern Iraq, he said US efforts were also directed at keeping tensions on the border "at the lowest point".
Some observers and analysts are still expressing hope that the damage to US-Turkish relations could be limited. In Washington, one former senior official argued that a quick Turkish vote on troop deployment would help persuade US policy-makers that its co-operation was still necessary - not least to prevent clashes between Kurds and Turks keen to check Kurdish nationalism in northern Iraq. "It will be too late for the US troops to use Turkish soil as part of a blitzkrieg against Baghdad but at least the prospect of US troops arriving will keep everybody in check in northern Iraq," he said.
Ankara's only comment on relations with the US yesterday
was opaque: "We want to develop relations with our strategic ally
further, based on historic depth and mutual respect," Mr Cicek
said. "We are going through a dynamic process."