ISKENDERUN, Turkey, 13 March 2003 — Turkish soldiers fired in the air yesterday as leftist demonstrators clashed with security forces outside a port being used for a US military build-up against Iraq.
The vast majority of Turks oppose a war on their neighbor and fellow Muslim country Iraq, but the government is under severe economic and political pressure to grant US requests to allow troops to attack Iraq from Turkey, a NATO ally. Around 150 Turkish members of a small Communist party tried to force their way through the gates of Iskenderun port on the Mediterranean coast.
The protesters shouted “Yankee go home!” as blue-uniformed Turkish police and troops in camouflage uniforms and helmets blocked their way. Scuffles broke out and the troops fired off five or six short bursts of gunfire into the air. The crowd later dispersed.
Ships have been unloading tons of US military equipment at Iskenderun for weeks under an interim agreement with the Turkish government allowing the United States to upgrade bases and ports here.
Forty-eight US jeeps and trucks carrying containers left the base in two convoys yesterday morning before the protest started. Turkey’s Parliament rejected a recent government motion that would allow 62,000 troops as well as warplanes to deploy in Turkey for a possible attack on Iraq. But the government, bolstered now by military support might soon resubmit it.
A US financial aid package to shield the country against the effects of war is linked to Turkish support for the US military. For Washington, which may be contemplating an assault this month, time is running short. Some 10 ships carrying armor and equipment for the Fourth Infantry division are waiting off the Turkish coast for permission to dock.
From Iskenderun, road and rail links could take the US forces rapidly to Turkey’s southern border with Iraq.
Meanwhile, incoming Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was yesterday putting together his new government, which the United States anxiously hopes will support American war efforts against Iraq.
Erdogan, who argues that backing the United States will serve Turkey’s interests, has survived a jail term and political bans to become prime minister, following his election to parliament at the weekend.
When he was appointed Tuesday to lead the country, the head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said that he would form his Cabinet “in the shortest possible time,” but he did not give a definite timetable. “My conviction is that this business will be finished this afternoon or tomorrow at the latest,” an AKP source told AFP yesterday.
Outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said Tuesday that Erdogan’s government would decide whether a new vote would be held on the issue. “The consultations with the United States are continuing in a very sincere atmosphere,” Gul said.
Turkey’s ambassador to the United States told reporters in Washington that talks were under way on the possible use by US forces of Turkish airspace in case of war, Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.
