Oped[Derived Headline] ; Turkey On Iraq 'I Wish We Had Agreed' Erdogan

Summary

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Thousands gathered to protest in front of the Turkish parliament in Ankara last week, while Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan urged his party to send troops to Lebanon as part of the U.N. peace- keeping force. In the end, all of the members of the majority Justice and Development Party voted to approve the measure. The opposition solidly opposed it, as did more than 80 percent of the Turkish people.

Three years ago, when the United States asked Turkey to open a northern front for American troops to enter Iraq, Mr. Erdogan cared about public opinion. Now, less than a month before he is scheduled to meet with President Bush, he said for the first time that that decision was wrong. "I wish we had agreed to have troops in Iraq," Mr. Erdogan said. "We'd have an entirely different picture than what is the case today." He meant that Turkey would not have had such trouble with the PKK, the Kurdish separatist terrorists. "It was clear what part of Iraq would be given to our control," he said. "Where? Northern Iraq. But we agreed not to send troops there."

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Oped[Derived Headline] ; Turkey On Iraq 'I Wish We Had Agreed' Erdogan

The parliament did, indeed, agree to send troops to northern Iraq. That made the U.S. nervous about Turkey's plans to cross the border to pursue PKK terrorists, and prompted it to promise ...

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