Turkey Allows U.S. to Use Bases

January 21, 2003

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Turkey has decided to allow the United States to use its bases for an attack on Iraq, but public opinion will force the Turkish government to drastically scale back the American plans, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Yasar Yakis, the foreign minister, told the newspaper in an interview that his government had instructed the Turkish military to draft a plan providing for an American force that would be just large enough to tie up Iraqi troops based in the northern part of the country so a larger American force could attack Baghdad from the south.

Yakis said the Turkish government was constrained by public opinion, which surveys show to be overwhelmingly against a war, from allowing the Americans to base a much larger force on Turkish soil, according to the article. Any Turkish plan must be approved by the country's Parliament, which is dominated by a party with Islamist roots.

The American and Turkish military planners had not yet agreed on a final plan, Yakis told the Times. He said one of the options considered for a scaled-down northern front is an American force of about 15,000 troops. Under that plan, he said a pair of American brigades of about 5,000 troops each would attack in separate points in northern Iraq, with another brigade standing by in reserve.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21558-2003Jan21.html