Untitled Document

26 March 2003

1. "US-Turkey match goes into shoot-out", the way Turkey and the United States view their relationship in the light of the Iraq saga resembles a goalless soccer match at full time. The match ended with President George W. Bush delivering his 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein on March 18.

2. "Human Rights Watch warns of humanitarian disaster in Kurdistan", Kurdish-held northern Iraq faces a humanitarian disaster with thousands of residents fleeing their homes if fighting intensifies in the area, a Human Rights Watch official warned Tuesday.

3. "Brussels proposes to double Turkey's EU funding", the European Commission Wednesday proposed to double the money it gives to help Turkey prepare for eventual EU membership, to 1.05 billion euros (1.1 billion dollars) between 2004 and 2006, an official said.

4. "Turkey's ruling party saved from ban by legal reforms", Turkey's chief prosecutor said Tuesday the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) no longer faced the threat of a ban following constitutional reforms but could still be fined for past infringements, Anatolia news agency reported. (...) "Turkish prime minister drops suit against Turkey, filed in opposition days", Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has withdrawn a human rights complaint against Turkey that he filed when he was in opposition, judicial sources said Tuesday.

5. "Iraq still casts shadow over Kurds", Dozens have been executed in Kirkuk in recent days, say Kurdish officials.

6. "Trouble with Turkey", "We have a saying," so a Turkish businessman told me recently. "A Turk's only friend is a Turk." Unfortunately, this self-fulfilling prophecy appears to be in the process of being, well, fulfilled.

7. "Bush Is to Blame", President George Bush's warning to Turkey not to send troops into northern Iraq provokes very mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is no justification whatsoever for Turkish troops going in. It is as much an act of self-serving interference in Iraq's affairs as anything the Americans are doing.

8. "U.S. Plans to Create Military Command in Northern Iraq", Effort Aims to Avert Turkish Deployment in Kurdish Region.

1. - The Daily Star (Lebanon) - "US-Turkey match goes into shoot-out":

26 March 2003 / by Mohammad Noureddine *

The way Turkey and the United States view their relationship in the light of the Iraq saga resembles a goalless soccer match at full time. The match ended with President George W. Bush delivering his 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein on March 18.

The match was goalless because neither was a northern (Turkish) front opened, nor did Turkey become part of the Iraq equation. Now that war has been joined, the "soccer match" has gone into a penalty shootout.

It is obvious that the Iraq question could well deliver a "strategic blow" to Turkish-American relations in the long term. The controversies that characterized talks between the two countries in the months and weeks preceding the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq caused deep mutual suspicion and mistrust.

The Turkish Parliament's belated March 20 decision to allow US warplanes to use Turkish airspace only succeeded in arresting the deterioration in bilateral relations. But why did relations between Ankara and Washington reach such a low point?

It is unmistakable that both sides have their own agendas. Turkey has no problems with Baghdad, and its battle is not with the Iraqi regime. Turkey has a big problem, however, with northern Iraq, and its battle is with the secessionist tendencies of the Iraqi Kurds.

America, by contrast, has its eyes focused firmly on Baghdad, and its quarrel is with the Iraqi regime. It is easy to see therefore that a clash of objectives lies behind the sudden deterioration in relations between Washington and Ankara.

Turkey has pursued a dual policy since early in the crisis. It had one eye on peace and the other on war. The Turks were betting that war would not take place, and they saw avoiding war as a Turkish interest. After suffering a lot as a result of the 1991 Gulf War, and having spent the last 12 years building a new status quo in Iraq, the Turks don't want to find themselves facing a new reality in Iraq that would be detrimental to their unity and national security.

The Turks were also betting that the US would never go to war against Iraq without them. This belief was not the exclusive preserve of the government or the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). According to Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, Turkish policy is state rather than party policy. This is correct, because a cabal which includes the president, prime minister, several ministers, the chief of staff, and the head of Turkish intelligence takes the final decision on issues relating to Iraq. The situation, therefore, is totally different to that which prevailed in 1991.

This time, Ankara procrastinated until the last possible moment even after Bush delivered his ultimatum. But once Ankara realized there was not to be a peaceful solution and after continuous insistence from America it decided to resume its attempts to sign a deal with Washington, and present a new draft bill to Parliament (on March 18). It was at this point that Washington sprang its big surprise: The Americans decided to abandon the Turkish deal and go to war without a northern front. Thus did Turkey's second gamble (that the US would never attack Iraq without Turkish help) fall by the wayside.

There was a role reversal during the talks between the two countries: Turkey appeared to be the superpower, while the US seemed to be the smaller country. This backfired on the Turks big time.

Washington cancelled a $30 billion aid package and abandoned the idea of a northern front. Turkey lost an opportunity to take part in the war and in post-war arrangements. The Turks miscalculated; they failed to realize that America, in its current belligerent and arrogant mood in which it has ignored international law and decided to attack Iraq with no legal or moral cover would never allow a country like Turkey to rebel and weaken its image, however much it needed its help.

The US has thus gone to war against Iraq through one front only (from the south). The war will thus take longer and be more costly. The Iraqi Kurds will have a bigger role to play in military operations. Turkey, meanwhile, will have to watch from the sidelines. At best, the Turks can do no nothing without the express permission of the enraged Americans.

This new situation has changed the Turkish approach to the Iraq question out of all recognition. All senior Turkish officials Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Chief of Staff Hilmi Ozkok have said Turkey can never remain outside the Iraq equation. General Ozkok said the choice before Turkey is not between good and bad, but between bad and worse. Turkey, he said, must move into northern Iraq.

But now that Washington has canceled the comprehensive deal with Turkey, the situation in northern Iraq has been blown wide open.

While it is preoccupied with military operations in the south and center, the US is keen to keep the Kurdish region pacified. That is why Washington opposes the entry of Turkish troops into northern Iraq; the Americans want to avoid the nightmare scenario of clashes between the Turkish Army and the Kurds, especially since the Iraqi Kurds have threatened to do just that.

But can the Americans rely on Kurdish help in the occupation of Mosul and Kirkuk, especially if American forces became unstuck further south? What position could Ankara adopt if that were to happen, especially since it had already announced that it would never allow the Kurds to take Mosul and Kirkuk with their rich oil fields and Turkmen populations?

Ankara is in a bind; until now, the Turks have appeared to be unable to act without American approval. Having lost all its cards, Turkey is trying to demonstrate that it still has strategic value to the Americans. This value will be put to the test in northern Iraq. Will Turkey pass this test?

* Mohammad Noureddine is a Beirut-based expert on Turkish affairs. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star

2. - AFP - "Human Rights Watch warns of humanitarian disaster in Kurdistan":

ARBIL / 25 March 2003

Kurdish-held northern Iraq faces a humanitarian disaster with thousands of residents fleeing their homes if fighting intensifies in the area, a Human Rights Watch official warned Tuesday.

Hania Mufti, the New York-based rights group's representative for the Middle East, told AFP here she feared "a flow of thousands of civilian refugees toward the border" with Iran or Turkey. An unspecified number of people have already abandoned their homes in Arbil and other cities in Iraqi Kurdistan and are sleeping under tents or in schools in the Suran area bordering Iran, she said.

"The groups of displaced people in the Suran region are living in very difficult conditions," she said. "These displaced people don't have what they need to live or to protect themselves from the cold," she said, criticizing the United Nations for having withdrawn humanitarian workers from Iraqi Kurdistan on the eve of the war.

Northern Iraq has been largely out of Baghdad's control since the 1991 Gulf war and major Kurdish groups have allied with the United States and Britain in the war to oust President Saddam Hussein. US-led forces have been bombing around the Baghdad-controlled northern oil city of Kirkuk amid growing signals that the coalition plans to open a northern front in the war.

A March 22 UN report estimated between 300,000 and 450,000 people had already fled their homes in northern Iraq, mostly in Kirkuk, Arbil and Dahuk. Separately, Mufti said Human Rights Watch favored the prosecution of a number of Iraqi leaders for alleged crimes against humanity.

She mentioned three figures now in exile: Nizar al-Khazraji, a former army chief who disappeared from his home in Denmark earlier this month; Wafiq al-Samarai, a former military intelligence chief now based in London, and Meshaan al-Jaburi, head of the al-Watan party in Damascus.

3. - AFP - "Brussels proposes to double Turkey's EU funding":

BRUSSELS / 26 March 2003

The European Commission Wednesday proposed to double the money it gives to help Turkey prepare for eventual EU membership, to 1.05 billion euros (1.1 billion dollars) between 2004 and 2006, an official said.

Provided the 15 European Union member states agree, the Turkish funding would stand at 250 million euros in 2004, 300 million the next year and 500 million in 2006, the source said. The money is provided under Turkey's "partnership for accession" programme with the EU's executive arm. All candidates hoping to join the bloc must undertake reforms provided for by the programme to conform with EU standards.

The European Commission has identified political reforms as being particularly pressing for Turkey, notably in the area of judicial independence so as to ensure respect of human rights and ethnic minorities. The EU is due to welcome 10 more member states in May next year. But Turkey is still waiting for a date to launch its accession talks.

Brussels has meanwhile warned that any military intervention in northern Iraq by Turkey amid the US-led war would complicate Ankara's EU bid. Turkey said Tuesday it had no intention of invading northern Iraq, which is populated by the Kurdish minority, saying any future troop deployment would be only for humanitarian purposes.

4. - AFP - "Turkey's ruling party saved from ban by legal reforms":

ANKARA / STRASBOURG / 25 March 2003

Turkey's chief prosecutor said Tuesday the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) no longer faced the threat of a ban following constitutional reforms but could still be fined for past infringements, Anatolia news agency reported.

"Under the amendments, banning (the AKP) is, naturally, out of the question," prosecutor Sabih Kanadoglu told reporters after presenting his oral arguements in a legal case against the party. Kanadoglu had asked the constitutional court to outlaw the AKP after the party failed to observe a constitutional court order calling for the removal of its chairman -- now the country's prime minister -- Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan was convicted for "inciting religious hatred" in 1998, a sentence that robbed him of a number of political rights, including his eligibility to run for parliament. But his party won a massive victory in general elections in November and, once in office, moved swiftly to amend laws that threatened its future.

The AKP also passed reforms that lifted the legal barriers keeping Erdogan from parliamentary politics. Erdogan won a parliamentary seat in a by-election earlier this month and became prime minister, replacing Abdullah Gul. The prosecutor hinted, however, that the AKP could still face financial penalties for originally disobeying the constitutional court.

"Turkish prime minister drops suit against Turkey, filed in opposition days"

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has withdrawn a human rights complaint against Turkey that he filed when he was in opposition, judicial sources said Tuesday.

The European Court for Human Rights said it received a letter from Erdogan's attorney on Monday, saying he was dropping the suit. Erdogan filed the lawsuit with the Strasbourg-based court in 1999, in protest of a 10-month prison sentence that a Turkish court handed to him after he was convicted for inciting religious and racial hatred.

The conviction had prevented Erdogan from running in Turkey's November parliamentary elections, which were overwhelmingly won by the party that he heads, the Justice and Development Party (AKP). This, in turn, meant he could not assume the post of the prime minister even though he was the leader of the country's ruling party -- because Turkey's constitution requires prime ministers to be members of parliament.

Following the election, the AKP-dominated parliament passed reforms that enabled Erdogan to stand as a candidate in a March by-election, in which he won a parlimentary seat and subsequently assumed the prime minister's post. On Tuesday, Turkey's chief prosecutor said AKP no longer faced the threat of a ban following constitutional reforms but could still be fined for past infringements, Anatolia news agency reported.

5. - The Christian Science Monitor - "Iraq still casts shadow over Kurds":

Dozens have been executed in Kirkuk in recent days, say Kurdish officials.

CHAMCHAMAL / 25 March 2003 / by Cameron W. Barr

The regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein may be facing its demise, but it still has Dilshad Salih's mother in its grasp.

A little over a week ago, in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, Hadao Hassan agreed to carry a small box of Iraqi military buttons and insignia to Chamchamal, a town in the Kurdish-controlled portion of the country.

Mr. Salih believes his mother did not know what was inside. In all likelihood, the contents were on their way to Kurdish militiamen, who wear the Iraqi insignia on their uniforms in the absence of their own markings.

But she seems to have known that she was taking a risk. The man who drove her toward Chamchamal later told Salih that she wrapped the box in some pieces of bread. The subterfuge didn't work.

At a checkpoint outside Kirkuk, Iraqi security agents found the box and arrested her. They later refused a neighbor's attempt to pay a bribe for her freedom.

In recent days, Kurdish officials have asserted that the regime has executed dozens of Kurds in the city - the estimates range from 32 to 63 - in an apparent attempt to stifle a Kurdish uprising. Salih worries that his mother may have been among them.

Kurdish officials in Chamchamal say they believe she was one of two women among those executed. They share their suspicions with journalists, but they haven't told Salih.

So he sits in his family's house in Chamchamal, waiting for some word of his mother's whereabouts. It is empty, because the rest of the family is staying in their village, which is further away from the Iraqi front lines. He is the eldest son, an adult, so it is his responsibility to protect the house.

On Monday morning, US forces struck the Iraqi military emplacements that sit on a ridgeline overlooking Chamchamal. The string of explosions broke windows in the town below. After the attack, ambulances and men carrying stretchers could be seen along the ridgeline.

Kurdish officials are delighted that US airpower is a more frequent visitor to the north. But Salih and many other Kurds with relatives in Hussein-controlled Iraq cannot help fearing for their loved ones as war comes closer.

He is a gaunt young man with brown eyes, high cheekbones, and full lips. He wears his black hair in a quarter-inch crewcut, so his ears stick out a bit. Although he has had only a few years of education, he installs satellite-television systems for a living. "I am clever with such things," he says, looking down, a little bashful.

In the mid-1990s, he worked as a smuggler. He carried goods from Kirkuk into the Kurdish zone. In 1995, Iraqi soldiers caught him smuggling some copper. He tried to bribe his way to freedom, but Iraqi security agents arrested him and the Iraqi sergeant he was trying to pay off. He was detained in Kirkuk for one month and eight days and badly beaten. "After I suffered that torture," he says, "I never went there again."

At about this time, Ms. Hassan began traveling back and forth between Chamchamal and Kirkuk, which is less than thirty miles away. By picking things up for people or by buying things cheaply in Kirkuk and selling them in Chamchamal, she earned a few dollars a day to support her family.

Salih says it was miserable work for an older woman - commuting back and forth between Kurdish- and Hussein-controlled Iraq, never knowing when her goods might be seized or whether she would be arrested or harassed by Iraqi soldiers. "She hasn't seen a lot of happiness in her life," her son says.

Hassan's decision to go to Kirkuk last week was out of concern for her family. With war in the air, she wanted to buy some vegetable shortening, which is cheaper in Kirkuk than in Chamchamal. Salih has pieced together what happened to her from the driver, the neighbor who tried to secure her release, and a family friend who saw her in at a courthouse in Kirkuk.

Arriving in Kirkuk in the morning, she bought a 33 lb can of shortening and divided the contents into two plastic sacks. Then she ran into an acquaintance who gave her the small box.

After Hassan's arrest, the driver was forced to leave her at the checkpoint, so he drove on to Chamchamal. One of Salih's neighbors immediately left for Kirkuk. Iraqi officials sometimes keep detainees at checkpoints for hours in the expectation that a friend or relative will arrive with money.

When Salih's neighbor arrived at the checkpoint, an Iraqi officer grabbed him by the shirt and accused him of attempting a bribe.

The neighbor denied the accusation - however true - and went away without Salih's mother. She was taken to a military intelligence headquarters in Kirkuk, which is known as Branch Two.

The next day, a family friend saw her by chance at the Kirkuk courthouse. She told him the Iraqis had demanded she tell them who had given her the box and she had complied.

If they couldn't find him, Iraqi officials warned her, "your future will be black." Another family friend later tried to visit Hassan at Branch Two. Military intelligence officials told him to go away, citing the "war situation."

Salih cannot forget the reason why his mother went to Kirkuk that day. "She fell into this situation because of some vegetable shortening," he says. "The driver brought us the two plastic sacks."

6. - The Washington Times - "Trouble with Turkey":

26 March 2003 / by Helle Dale *

"We have a saying," so a Turkish businessman told me recently. "A Turk's only friend is a Turk." Unfortunately, this self-fulfilling prophecy appears to be in the process of being, well, fulfilled.

The Turkish parliament did itself no end of political harm when it voted against allowing U.S. troops to be stationed there for a "northern front" against Iraq. This sent relations with the United States - Turkey's most important international and powerful ally - into a tailspin. And, because of Turkey's military ambitions in northern Iraq's Kurdish areas, these two long-standing NATO allies may in the near future be facing each other in a standoff.

While the United States simply cannot afford to compromise the territorial integrity of Iraq, Turkey has not yet accepted that fact. In an interview in The Washington Post, new Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Ergodan said that "The latest demand from Secretary of State Colin Powell was for overflights only. When we were asked for overflight rights, we said that we would like to see Turkish troops in northern Iraq, and they approved that." Any notion that Washington approves has been vigorously disputed by the White House.

Until very recently, Turkey was considered one of the most reliable strategic allies of the United States. What happened? Mistakes and miscalculations were certainly made on both sides, but the United States clearly had the right to expect better from an ally and friend of long standing when it came to support for the war effort in Iraq.

One of the most important events in this debacle was the election last fall of the Justice and Development Party, which has Islamic roots. This fact, however, may ultimately be less important than the sheer inexperience of its new top politicians. A parliamentary vote in February on the U.S. request for military cooperation not only went down unexpectedly, but also denied the United States the use of American air bases there, and even Turkish airspace. All of this happened as U.S. troops were sailing around the Mediterranean awaiting Turkish approval to disembark - which never came.

On the U.S. side, it has almost been an article of faith, particularly in conservative circles, that Turkish and American interests were the same. Some of Turkey's strongest supporters are now in the Pentagon - Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, for one, Richard Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board, for another.

"The U.S. government, particularly the Pentagon, became entrapped in its own rhetoric about Turkey - about how indispensable it is and how close out association is, about our shared strategic outlook and the strong confluence of views with the Turkish military," wrote Morton Abramowitz, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, in the Wall Street Journal this week.
With $31 billion in U.S.-supported IMF aid to Turkey, the backing of Turkey on the Cyprus issue and support for Turkey's EU membership, the White House did seem to have good reason to expect a friendly reception for its demands. Add to all this a promised package of $6 billion in bilateral U.S. financial aid to Turkey.

But the request for 62,000 U.S. troops to be stationed in Turkey for a ground invasion was clearly too much for the parliament to swallow - and this was even down from an initial request of 90,000. Nor did the Turkish parliament accept that its own troops had to be kept out of northern Iraq, where Turks fear that an independent Kurdish state will provide a base for secessionist Kurds within Turkey.

Can we expect Turkey to find new friends in Europe, then? Hardly likely. Many Europeans tend to have nightmares at the prospect of the 67 million Turks joining the European Union. Turkey, in fact, had moved one small step closer to this coveted goal at the EU Copenhagen summit in December, when it was given at least a timetable for possible accession talks starting in 2005. This could now be in jeopardy.

As stated by Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel on Sunday, "It is unthinkable that Turkey should join Europe if it goes into Kurdistan." Even if Belgium is becoming somewhat notorious for inflicting its opinions on the world these days, Mr. Michel is undoubtedly right. Europe will welcome an excuse to keep Turkey out.
There is still time for Turkey to prevent its international isolation from becoming an incontrovertible fact. Prime Minister Ergodan will do his country a very important good turn if he finds a way to make peace with the U.S. government and regain some of the trust that has clearly been lost.

* Helle Dale is deputy director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

7. - Arabic News - "Bush Is to Blame":

25 March 2003

President George Bush's warning to Turkey not to send troops into northern Iraq provokes very mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is no justification whatsoever for Turkish troops going in. It is as much an act of self-serving interference in Iraq's affairs as anything the Americans are doing. Certainly, Ankara's claim that it wants to prevent a flood of refugees fools no one. The Kurds are not going to flee their safe haven in northern Iraq for the dubious protection of a state they fear and hate with as much intensity as Saddam Hussein's regime. They know they are safe where they are and will stay put, unless the US-led invasion of Iraq is seen to falter and fail, which despite the present Iraqi resistance is extremely unlikely.

On the other hand, that it is Bush warning the Turks to keep out of Iraq is repellent. Such a demand is rich beyond words coming from someone who, in sending his own his troops to topple Saddam Hussein, has trampled international law and order underfoot. But we cannot be surprised at such shameless hypocrisy. President Bush's manic belief that he is right and the rest of the world wrong vis-a-vis Saddam Hussein made it inevitable that he should assume that the US - and only the US - has an unchangeable right to do what it wants with Iraq.

Of course, we all know that the Turks have their own agenda, that the real reason why they want to intervene in northern Iraq is that they are afraid that the war could result in an independent Kurdish state there. The idea terrifies them. They fear that it could destabilize southeast Turkey with its own massive Kurdish community. That is why, over the past decade, Ankara has made no attempt to hide its animosity toward the autonomous Kurdish statelet around Irbil. It sees it as a dangerous threat, not merely because of what it could become, but because it has already institutionalized Kurdish freedoms. Having won them in northern Iraq, it fears the Kurds may want them elsewhere.

The Turkish government is out to make the most from this war. It first tried it financially with the Americans, asking billions of extra dollars for US troops to cross into northern Iraq, only to find that the Turkish Parliament had higher standards. Now it wants to intimidate and if necessary shackle the Kurds while the going is good. Moreover, it needs to be remembered that Turkish politicians regularly question the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne which defined the borders of present-day Turkey and they regularly reassert claims to the old governorate of Mosul. There is, moreover, all that oil to consider. In threatening to invade Northern Iraq, Turkey is simply pursuing its own interests.

But Ankara is being incredibly naive in doing so. It intervenes in Iraqi Kurdistan at its peril, not because of anything the Americans might do, but because of the explosion of Kurdish anger that will result, and which will blow back into Turkey, not just in the southeast, but possibly all the way to Istanbul, to which so many hundreds of thousands of Kurds have migrated. It is not Ankara's self-interest that shocks. It is Washington's arrogant assumption that it alone has the right to decide what happens in Iraq. Yet again Bush shows himself as the cowboy, in this case as the cowboy incensed that someone else has ridden into town on the lookout for the easy pickings that he has created. Ankara is simply taking its cue from Washington's actions. For that, Bush is wholly to blame.

8. - The Washingtom Post - "U.S. Plans to Create Military Command in Northern Iraq":

Effort Aims to Avert Turkish Deployment in Kurdish Region

SALAHUDDIN / ANKARA / 25 March 2003 / by Dan Williams and Philip P. Pan

The United States said today it was creating a special military command to protect northern Iraq and satisfy Turkish security concerns along the Turkey-Iraq border.

The creation of the Military Coordination and Liaison Command is part of a U.S. effort to dissuade Turkey from sending troops to northern Iraq in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq last week.

Marine Maj. Gen. Henry P. Osman said at a news conference here that the new command would serve as a communications link between the Turks and Iraqi Kurds, who oppose Turkey's threat to invade Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

The surprise appearance of the Marine general was a departure from the U.S. military's stealthy operations in northern Iraq. Osman provided few details about the command, but said it meant the United States would "coordinate" humanitarian aid and "provide a democracy" that would ensure minority rights in Iraq's Kurdish region. "U.S. and coalition partners support a secure, stable and viable Iraq, which includes the preservation of its current borders," he said, declining to answer reporters' questions.

He said the liaison command would "assist in 'deconfliction' of military and humanitarian activities," but did not elaborate.

Turkey has thousands of troops massed on its border and has threatened to occupy northern Iraq and disarm the Kurds. Nervous about Turkey's own restive Kurdish minority, the government in Ankara seeks to use its military force to block the potential flow of refugees into Turkey, to protect the Turkmen minority in northern Iraq and to block any attempt by Kurds in Turkey and Iraq to form an independent state.

On Sunday, President Bush spoke out against Turkish intervention. "We're making it very clear that we expect them not to come into northern Iraq. They know our policy," he said.

Kurdish officials fielded questions following the remarks by the U.S. general. Iraqi Kurds have said they would take up arms if Turkish troops enter Iraq.

"The Turkish army is not coming in," said Hoshyar Zubari, an official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two military-political organizations that administer northern Iraq. The autonomous zone has been free of central government control for 12 years.

Despite Zubari's assessment, the issue of Turkish intervention has not been decided.

Today, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Turkish officials in Ankara, discussing Turkey's rationale for sending troops to northern Iraq. Turkey's chief of general staff, Gen. Milmi Ozkok, told reporters: "The Turkish armed forces have made certain plans and preparations. When the right time and the right place comes, the necessary decisions will be made and put into effect."

Creation of the liaison command follows months of U.S.-Turkish negotiations over Turkey's role in the war against Iraq.

The Bush administration had agreed to Turkish military participation as part of the war to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The Turks refused to allow U.S. troops to gather in Turkey to stage attacks from the north. Currently, Turkey's cooperation is limited to permitting U.S. planes to fly over Turkish territory.

Failure to bring the Turks into the war blocked Pentagon plans to mount an offensive from the north involving 62,000 troops. No ground action in Iraqi-held northern territory has taken place. Instead, warplanes have been bombing targets near the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.

Today, airstrikes were launched against targets near the towns of Quayir and Makmur, which lie northwest of Kirkuk on the road to Mosul. One mid-morning strike rattled windows and walls 10 miles away in Kurdish-held territory.

To the east of Kirkuk, planes bombed a barracks near the frontier of the autonomous zone and a military command site in the town of Qara Hanjir.

As many as 130 U.S. Special Operations troops have been working to locate targets for airstrikes, Kurdish officials said. Osman's visit coincided with the arrival of scores of additional U.S. troops, but the events appeared unrelated. The newly arrived soldiers were being dispatched to take part in an offensive against anti-American Islamic militants in the Kurdish zone and to join Special Operations units already in place.

Osman met with Kurdish military officials Sunday and was scheduled to meet today with Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. The command will maintain an office in northern Iraq but will be based in Silopi, a town in southeastern Turkey near the border.

Kurdish officials were enthusiastic about the talks with the U.S. officer. "The Americans are saying they are here in northern Iraq," Zubari said.

Both Zubari's group and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which also administers a part of northern Iraq, are eager to show Kurdish-U.S. cooperation. In their view, the closer the relationship, the more likely Washington would be to support Kurdish autonomy in Iraq if Hussein is ousted.

Kurdish forces, numbering up to 70,000, range from trained, fatigue-clad troops to Minuteman-like bands wearing traditional baggy pants and sashes. The forces have expressed desire to join the battle and head south. They have special interest in moving toward Kirkuk, which they regard as part of the Kurdish homeland.

Ankara, however, claims that Kirkuk, the hub of Iraq's oil-rich north, is historically Turkish. Turkey has threatened to send troops to occupy the city if Kurdish forces attempt to move there.