L
Posted on 08/27/2006 3:49:43 PM PDT by jdm
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - The European Union and the United Nations are pushing for Muslim participation in the expanded U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but a growing public chorus in Turkey opposes sending troops who could be seen as supporting Israel against fellow Muslims.
Turkish legislators are expected to debate the U.N. peacekeeping mission at a Cabinet meeting Monday, though no decision is anticipated. Some officials say Turkey is likely to wait until U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's visit Sept. 6 before committing to the force.
"There will be no rush," the Hurriyet newspaper quoted lawmaker Mehmet Elkatmis as saying. "It will be debated in all aspects."
Hurriyet reported Sunday that Turkey has slashed the number of troops that it would consider sending from 1,000 to 200 in light of the strong domestic opposition.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who may hold a ceremonial post but wields considerable influence in the country, has come out strongly against sending troops.
"I am opposed to sending soldiers to Lebanon," he told journalists on Friday. "It is not our responsibility to protect the interests of other countries."
The EU and U.N. are pushing for Muslim participation so the peacekeeping force isn't overwhelmingly made up of troops from Christian countries. Israel, though, has balked at the participation of Muslim nations that do not recognize the Jewish state.
On Saturday, Israel said it had spoken to several countries about joining the force, particularly Turkey _ the only Muslim member of NATO and a country with close ties to both Israel and Arab states.
"If Turkey decides to send a contingent, we would welcome that," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said in Jerusalem.
Military officers and Turkish diplomats say they want details on exactly what the force's mandate will be, where Turkish peacekeepers could be deployed and under what circumstances soldiers could open fire.
Turkish officials also have said privately that they want other countries to make major contributions first so Turks aren't the only key contingent on the ground. And they want to make sure that the tenuous cease-fire in the area holds.
But with the European Union pledging 6,900 troops _ the core of the proposed 15,000-member force to monitor the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas _ the pressure is on EU aspirant Turkey to pledge soldiers as well.
"We're located in the most troublesome geography," said lawmaker Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat of the governing Justice and Development Party. "Can we have a luxury of saying: 'I am not participating?'"
Lebanon, though, has become an emotional issue in Turkey.
During the fighting, Turkish media was flooded with images of suffering Lebanese civilians. Thousands have rallied in Istanbul to show their support for Lebanese civilians under Israeli attack.
That pressure comes as the governing party _ feeling slighted by an EU that is questioning whether it wants Turkey _ is increasingly reaching out to its Muslim neighbors in the Middle East.
On the streets of Istanbul, activists from the governing party have been passing out leaflets showing a Lebanese soldier holding a dead child pulled from the rubble of a home bombed by Israeli jets, and urging them to donate to aid Lebanese.
"We have to mobilize all our energy and means to end the grief of the Palestinian and Lebanese people," the flyers quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying. It added that Turks could even send text messages from their cell phones to a hot line to donate $3.50.
Analysts note that Turkey rebuffed the United States just before the Iraq invasion and refused to allow U.S. troops to use Turkey as a base _ souring relations with Washington and leaving Ankara with little influence in shaping events in neighboring Iraq.
"Turkey has an obligation as a regional power and the old guardian of the Middle East to exert its positive influence on developments," editor-in-chief Ilnur Cevik wrote in The New Anatolian.
Sezer, the Turkish president, remains strongly against sending troops.
"While other more powerful states don't send troops, they pat our backs and want troops," he said. "If Turkey is a major country, then that image won't depend on whether or not we send troops."
I would say that "Turkey was fried..."
I look forward to the day... when Istanbul is spelled "Constantinople" again.
Turks would be a good guard force for the syrian border.
L
President Sezer is a wise man.
L
Ditto that.
Turkey, Syria sign free trade agreement
| Turkey and Syria signed a free trade agreement |
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