Ankara Invites Summit on Iraq, US Trying to Bribe Turkish Press

Additional Reporting by Sa’ad Abdul Majid, IOL Turkey Correspondent

ANKARA, January 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – While Turkey announced Thursday, January 16, inviting a regional six-way summit to thrash out a peaceful solution to the Iraq face-off with the U.S., a leading Turkish newspaper reported that Washington was paying 200 million dollars to Turkish press foundations to lure the government and people into supporting war on Iraq.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Yusuf Buluc told reporters that Ankara officially invited Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria to a meeting to discuss ways of resolving the Iraqi crisis peacefully, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"We have evaluated the possibility for regional countries to issue a call to the Iraqi administration to take all initiatives to allow the peaceful resolution of the problem," he said after a meeting at the ministry with the ambassadors of the five countries.

"We have invited the ambassadors today and told them Turkey was ready to organize a meeting for this purpose," he added.

Buluc said the idea for the meeting came out after a recent tour by Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul to the five countries to discuss how to resolve the Iraqi crisis and avert war.

The spokesman said Ankara would await reactions from the countries invited before deciding where and when to stage the meeting.

Turkish sources told IslamOnline correspondent that proposed date for the summit is January 23.

Egyptian Ambassador to Ankara Fathy al-Shazly told reporters after a meeting with the Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary that Ankara aims to hold the meeting next week.

Gul said in remarks published Thursday that the efforts of the regional countries aimed to ensure that Iraq was no longer perceived as a threat to international stability.

"(Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein must stop being a threat to the region and the world. And he has to prove that.

“Our primary objective as countries in the region is to exert pressure on Saddam in this direction," Gul told the Milliyet daily.

"The perception of threat in the region must change, it must be eradicated. This is the aim of our joint efforts," he added.

Asked whether Washington was irked by Ankara's initiative, Gul said: "On the contrary, both the United States and the United Nations are very pleased with our undertakings.

"We are talking both to Iraq, to regional countries and to the United States in order to achieve a peaceful resolution. We are trying to find a mid-way," the prime minister added.

This came at the same day the Milliyet paper disclosed that the U.S. ambassador in Ankara was working actively to build up a domestic Turkish lobby to support the war on Iraq and a Turkish participation in the military campaign.

According to the newspaper, the U.S. has allocated 200 million dollars to be given to Turkish media institutions to lure the country and government into backing the American war scenario.

In a televised interview Wednesday, January 16, the prominent political analyst Mohammad Ali Brand did not rule out the possibility of such an American move.

The same position was adopted by the former director of the Turkish intelligence Maher Qaynaq.

Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO and a key regional ally of the United States, is opposed to military action against its neighbor Iraq, fearing economic and political turmoil.

The country is under pressure from Washington to provide logistical support for a possible war against Iraq.

Ankara fears that the Kurds in breakaway northern Iraq could take advantage of the turmoil and proclaim independence in a move that might encourage separatism among their cousins in adjoining southeast Turkey.

After holding back on U.S. requests for logistical support, Ankara yielded to Washington's pressure last week and gave the go-ahead to a U.S. mission to assess the suitability of Turkish air bases and ports for any military action.

U.S. military experts carried out surveys at military facilities across the country for a third day on Thursday.

Turkish public opinion is staunchly against a U.S. intervention in Iraq and small anti-war demonstrations are held almost on a daily basis in the country.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said his country would answer Turkey's invitation after studying its "details and proposed agenda."

"When we receive the invitation (from Ankara) and see its details and proposed agenda, then we would consult with our Arab brothers as we all seek to contribute to a peaceful settlement to the situation in Iraq," Maher told journalists.

He stressed that Cairo "welcomes any effort ... to avoid military operations."

"The initiative of the Turkish government is to create a forum in which regional countries will urge the two sides...to take concrete steps towards defusing the tension and putting an end to the looming threat of a war in our region," he the Egyptian ambassador in Ankara.

"We are in favor of whatever can be done in order to avoid war," the ambassador added.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Wednesday, January 15, that Arab states and Turkey were seeking a formula acceptable to both Washington and Baghdad to head off war.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher said his government had "received the invitation and is studying it."

Political analyst Hosni Mahali told CNN Turk Thursday that Ankara was encouraged to invite the summit after receiving positive indications from Saddam through the Turkish Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen, who had just wrapped up a visit to Baghdad.

He said the Turkish foreign ministry passed to the ambassadors of the five countries a draft communiqué.

The main points in the communiqué, said the analyst, are presenting a pledge and confirmation to Saddam that war would not flare up and that the six countries would not be part of any war against Iraq; the complete lifting of sanctions on Iraq by the six countries; and reaffirmation of Iraq’s unity and sovereignty.

The communiqué, on the other hand, would press for democratic changes in Iraq, said Mahali.

It would also ask Saddam to show the weapons in its possession and to allow U.N. arms inspectors to destroy them in accordance with U.N. resolution 1441, he added.

In another interview with the same TV news network, political analyst Yalim Arleb, a retired ambassador, was doubtful Saddam would accept such serious recommendation.

In a phone contact with the network from the United States, Jane Peaker, Chairman of the American-Turkish Council, said Americans believe that all efforts to settle the Iraqi crisis peacefully would not be crowned with success and that war is the only option on the table.

He asserted that the United States continues to assemble troops in the Gulf and is not expected to give in for any peaceful initiative by Turkey or other countries of the region.

Some Turkish observes argue that during his multi-leg regional tour, Gul had received assurances from the leaders of the countries invited to the summit that they stand against war and would not participate in any aggression on Iraq..

This, they add, prompt Gul to initiate such a call, marking Turkey’s first positive stance with respect to any issue of concern to the region.

On Thursday, Turkish newspapers, especially Hurriyet, raised question marks regarding the gist of the message the Turkish foreign trade minister carried to Baghdad last week.

The media asked if the message proposed that Saddam steps down as an attempt to avert war.

During his visit to Ankara on January 13-14, Syrian Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa denied such a proposal was raised during his talks with Turkish officials.

Gul had himself denying raising the issue with the leaders of regional countries during his tour on January 6-11.

The proposal on Saddam’s stepping down was floated before Gul’s tour by businessman and former minister Hassan Aqsai.

At the time, the former minister said the proposal was self-motivated in an attempt to prevent the U.S.  from killing the children of Iraq and that he conveyed the proposal to Saddam via the Iraqi ambassador in Ankara.