Turkey Renews Mandate for North Iraq Patrols

Turkey's parliament on Tuesday extended for six months the mandate allowing US and British warplanes to patrol the no-fly zone in northern Iraq as fears mounted that Washington could next target Iraq in its war on terrorism.

NATO member Turkey, anxious that strikes across the border could stir its own restive Kurdish population, has joined other US allies to say it opposes action against Iraq in retaliation for its refusal to allow UN weapons inspectors to return there.

US and British flights from Turkey's southern Incirlik airbase protect northern Iraqi Kurds in a breakaway enclave and are a crucial part of US policy against President Saddam Hussein.

Islamist deputies from Turkey's opposition parties told parliament that the mandate, which has been extended every six months since northern Iraq fell from Baghdad's control after the 1991 Gulf War, had harmed Turkish interests, costing it billions of dollars in lost trade with Iraq.

"When this operation began it had a humanitarian mission, but now supplies a different perspective," said Ali Goren, an Islamist member of parliament, saying the operation could lead to a new Kurdish state in northern Iraq.

Baghdad does not recognise the no-fly zone and has targeted patrolling planes with its anti-aircraft system.

Turkey's cooperation with its western allies against Iraq has helped it to conduct an illicit oil trade with Iraqi Kurds and to carry out cross-border military operations in the enclave in pursuit of its own rebel Kurds.

(China Daily December 26, 2001)