Erdogan told Bush that as a democracy, going to war on Iraq should be the people’s decision

ANKARA, December 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - NATO member Turkey might hold a referendum on whether to take part in a military strike against Iraq, the leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Wednesday, December 11.

“In democracies, parliament should make the decision” on participating in a possible war in Iraq, Erdogan told reporters en route from the United States to Denmark, the Anatolia news agency reported.

“If need be, we should go to the public and get their opinion. ... If time allows it, a referendum could be held,” Erdogan suggested.

Turkey, a key regional ally of the United States, opposes military action against its southern neighbor Iraq, fearing that regional turmoil would exacerbate its own economic woes and lead to the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Ankara is concerned that such a state would fan separatist sentiment among its own sizeable Kurdish community in the southeast of the country at a time when a 15-year bloody Kurdish rebellion has significantly died down.

“We will be affected (by an operation against Iraq) whether we take part in it or not,” said Erdogan, who was returning to Europe after talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and senior officials.

“I got the impression that an operation was the dominant alternative (to a peaceful resolution of the dispute with Baghdad),” he added.

Turkey backed the 1991 Gulf War and allowed U.S. planes to use the Incirlik airbase in its south for bombing raids against Baghdad.

The same base is currently used by U.S. and British warplanes tasked with patrolling a no-fly zone imposed over northern Iraq to protect the Kurds living there against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Washington would like to sign up Turkey for a possible war against Iraq, allowing its forces to attack Baghdad from both north and south.

But according to a global attitude survey carried by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 83 percent of Turks would oppose allowing the United States to use bases in Turkey to launch military action against Iraq.

The number of people in Turkey with a positive view of the United States was down 22 percentage points from 1999-2000, to 30 percent, according to the survey published last week.

On another front, Turkey launched a last-gasp series of meetings with E.U. leaders Thursday, December 12, at a landmark summit in Copenhagen in a bid to wrench a date to start E.U. membership talks.

Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul demanded a date in 2003 and held out the prospect of a deal on Cyprus, which was itself the subject of last-ditch negotiations in the Danish capital.

Gul said after talks with Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis that Turkey had already gone a long way towards meeting E.U. membership criteria through a series of reform packages.

“We did our homework and now the E.U. cannot tell us ‘you should fulfill the rules of the club’,” he told reporters.

“It’s our right to get a very firm, clear date to start negotiations. We ask E.U. leaders to take a decision. We are expecting a firm date within 2003,” he said.

But a possible compromise on Turkey’s long-running bid to join the E.U. was in the air with Gul and the head of Turkey’s ruling party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, planning a meeting with the leaders of France and Germany.

A diplomat said the meeting at Friday lunchtime, on the second day of the E.U. summit, would see the Turkish leaders demand the E.U. make a firm decision on a date for their accession negotiations by May 1, 2004.

If Ankara won such a commitment from the E.U., it would give its backing to a United Nations peace plan for the divided island of Cyprus, the source said.

French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have proposed to ask the European Commission to compile a report in December 2004 on Turkey’s economic and democratic reforms.

If the report were positive, Ankara could begin membership talks on July 1, 2005, under the Franco-German proposal.

The Turkish counter-proposal would bring the date forward by six months, crucially obliging the E.U. to make its decision before the expected accession of 10 new candidates on May 1, 2004.

Turkey fears that if a decision to launch its accession negotiations is put back beyond the enlargement, its own E.U. bid will fall victim to hostility in the eastern European countries set to join.

Once a firm decision was taken, Ankara would be flexible on the actual date for the start of membership talks, the diplomatic source said.

The Franco-German proposal received widespread E.U. support but several countries, notably Britain, Italy and Greece, are pushing for a faster timetable for the process.

Gul and Erdogan were also due to meet Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Britain’s Tony Blair before the start of the E.U. summit on Thursday evening.

“The aim of the meetings is to cement the support of these countries and to ensure their support for Turkey against the opposition bloc which is in the E.U.,” said a Turkish diplomat.

Gul reiterated that a favorable decision on his country’s E.U. bid could transform hard-fought negotiations being brokered by the U.N. on ending the 28-year division of Cyprus.

“Our approach is positive. We want to solve the problem,” the Turkish leader said.

“There’s a very easy way to solve the problem: let’s go in the European Union. When we are there, all problems will be solved automatically.”

Last-ditch talks were underway in Copenhagen Thursday to strike a deal on Cyprus in time for the island to be invited to join the E.U. as a united island.

U.N. envoy Alvaro de Soto said he would be shuttling between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot officials, although Turkish Cypriot delegation head Tahsin Ertugruloglu had not yet arrived in the Danish capital.

The E.U. has made it clear that it will invite the internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot administration to join the bloc if no settlement can be reached in time with the Turkish Cypriots.