Ankara and Washington reject any U.S. influence on Iraq withdrawal

The head of Turkish military General Yasar Buyukanit told Milliyet daily the withdrawal from northern Iraq was based solely on military needs. "No one said withdraw," Buyukanit said in an interview. "This was a decision taken on military reasons altogether. There was not even a hint from politicians or foreigners to withdraw."

Thousands of Turkish troops, backed by warplanes and attack helicopters, crossed the border on February 21 to root out PKK separatists and destroy their numerous bases. It was Turkey's first major ground offensive against the PKK in northern Iraq in a decade. The withdrawal came a day after US President George W. Bush urged Turkey to end its withdrawal "as quickly as possible" and visiting Gates personally put pressure on Turkish leaders during talks in Ankara.

 

However Buyukanit said the decision to pull out was given long before Gates arrived in Ankara after Turkish troops killed 240 out of the 300 PKK separatists targeted near a major base before losing contact with the militants and had not been announced earlier for tactical reasons. "One third of our forces were inside Turkey on Wednesday, but it would have been murder to announce the withdrawal then," he added. PKK considered as a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S. and the E.U.        Â

 

Claims of an abrupt withdrawal were strengthened after a first text of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s monthly television address, said the operation was being pursued" even after Baghdad had confirmed that troops were leaving its territory. That version of the speech was distributed Friday afternoon with an embargo until the evening. A few hours later, his office distributed a second text of the speech that mentioned the pull-out.

 

Buyukanit defended Erdogan, saying that the prime minister knew about the withdrawal, but rightly did not mention it in the text of the address for the safety of the operation. "He could not have said they are withdrawing or will withdraw. It is not possible," the general said.

 

In Washington U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said on Friday that Turkey ended its cross-border operation in the north of Iraq according to its military and political assessments, not by the influence of the United States.

 

When recalled that there is a concern in the public view in Turkey that withdrawal of Turkish troops from the north of Iraq came after Gates' visit and Bush's call for immediate withdrawal, Casey said, "First of all, we're pleased to see that the Turks carried out their commitment to us and to the Iraqis to have this operation be limited in scope and duration. That is something that they have always said they intended to do", the official Anatolian Agency reported.

 

"I believe that the Turkish government took this decision because it made sense militarily and politically to the government of Turkey, and not in response to any kind of actions on our part," he added. Casey noted, "The important thing, though, is that the PKK is and remains a problem for Turkey, for the United States and for Iraq, and what we want to do is continue to work with the government of Turkey as well as the government of Iraq to be able to resolve it and put an end to the threat that it poses to all of us."

 

TURKISH MEDIA SUSPICIOUS

"Gates left, the operation ended," the leftist Radikal newspaper headline read on Saturday. "It has to be accepted that finishing the operation straight after Gates' departure was unfortunate timing," said Murat Yetkin, Radikal's Ankar bureau chief.

 

Newspapers said the sudden decision to withdraw had taken even Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan by surprise, reminding that he had to change his speech text which due last night. "Erdogan was most surprised of all," said the Taraf daily.

 

Erdogan denied he had been unaware of the plan to withdraw. "I have been in close contact with the General Staff since the beginning (of the operation), during every second of it," Erdogan told reporters late on Friday.