©2003 San Francisco Chronicle www.sfgate.comTurkish port abuzz with U.S. activity
As political scene churns, military ships pause
ByStephan Faris, Chronicle Foreign Service
Sunday, March 9, 2003Iskenderun, Turkey -- At the port where a U.S. ship had unloaded military equipment the day before, a union leader took advantage of the backdrop to make an anti-war speech.
Behind Bircan Altinuildiz, the head of Turkey's teachers union, U.S. jeeps, tankers, trucks and bulldozers turned the shipyards into a sea of olive drab. As photographers jockeyed for position, a member of Altinuildiz's entourage leaned toward a reporter and said, "He's saying 'No to War,' " he whispered. "But, it will come anyway."
Even though the Turkish parliament voted last Saturday against allowing deployment of 62,000 U.S. troops for an invasion of Iraq, the country's second largest port is buzzing with activity.
Turkey's armed forces insist the equipment is part of a prior agreement to upgrade Turkish bases and is not preparation for introducing ground forces. Three U.S. ships had unloaded heavy vehicles and trucks in the Iskenderun shipyards before the parliamentary vote.
But parliament's no vote appeared to slow down all logistical preparations. A convoy of more than 30 U.S. military vehicles loaded on flatbed trucks had been sitting since Sunday. The convoy finally departed Thursday, the day after Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, Turkey's top military officer, said cooperating with the United States would shorten the war.
"To say we hesitated is using almost too strong a word," said a U.S. military source. "We were watching the situation closely, but it has moved on and we are continuing."
At least four convoys have left the shipyards, two of them en route to a base at Mardin, a historic city less than 125 miles from the Iraqi border where U.S. troops are bivouacked in a flour factory.
"They (U.S. officials) still have some expectation that it will pass parliament," said Ilter Turkmen, a former foreign minister.
Still, parliamentary approval would counter popular sentiment and could become a drawn-out process. Turkish children chant anti-war slogans, while almost every Turkish newspaper dwells on the horrors of war. Last week, the NTV television channel dedicated an evening broadcast to showing war footage of Vietnam.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party, is expected to win a special election today that will allow him to become prime minister. The change in government could delay the parliamentary vote for several days.
Erdogan says he favors a new vote, and, if elected, is expected to dismiss Cabinet ministers opposed to giving access to U.S. troops, the daily Hurriyet reported Saturday.
"I am sure Erdogan will restart the process," Turkmen said. "But when? D- Day is approaching, no?"
If a second resolution doesn't pass, Turkey risks losing a promised $15 billion U.S. aid package and any say over a postwar Iraq. Ankara fears that the aspirations for independence of Iraqi Kurds could spark separatism among its own Kurdish population.
But more important, says Mustafa Aydin, an expert on security issues at Ankara University, Turkey could lose U.S. assistance on a host of unrelated issues.
Aydin points to talks over the reunification of Cyprus' Greek and Turkish regions and Turkey's quest to join the European Union.
"We might see another round of Armenian genocide claims in the U.S. Congress," he said in reference to the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. "The possibilities are endless."
But Aydin predicts Washington will wait for a go-ahead from Turkey's parliament. "If the Americans want a northern front, what choice do they have?" he asked.
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