Word: ankara
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...targeting Turkey, the radicals may also be seeking to provoke a crisis that slows its ascension into the European Union. Those provoking the government in Ankara will know, all too well, the ferocity the Turkish authorities are prepared to bring to bear to stamp out terrorism on their soil - some 35,000 people died in Turkey's bitter war against Kurdish separatists that ended about four years ago. That war on terror saw human rights abuses that were cited by the European Union as reasons to delay Turkey's membership, and the al-Qaeda aligned insurgents may want to provoke...
...burden, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that Ankara was "re-evaluating" its offer of troops in light of vehement opposition to the idea from Iraqis and from Baghdad's interim governing council. Privately, Turkish officials said preparations for the deployment of 10,000 soldiers - requested by Washington and approved by the Turkish parliament last month - had been halted. - By Andrew Purvis Not There Yet E.U. In a series of monitoring reports, the European Commission cautioned the 10 countries hoping to join the E.U. next May that they could face sanctions if they fail...
...Democracy in the Middle East and nearby Muslim lands would almost certainly restrain cooperation with the U.S. war on terror. Just look at what happened in Turkey on the eve of the Iraq war: Washington had simply assumed that Ankara would jump into line once the U.S. was on the march to war - after all, the country had been effectively ruled since World War II by generals closely aligned with Washington. But Turkey is far more democratic today, and when it was left up to the elected parliament to choose, the U.S. request to invade Iraq from Turkish territory...
...that a move toward independence by Iraq's Kurds would inflame the aspirations of its Kurdish minority, previously threatened to block such a move by force if necessary. Indeed, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sold the deployment to skeptical Turks by arguing that a presence in Iraq would enable Ankara to keep an eye on Kurdish mischief. And a Turkish minister tells TIME that during an emotionally charged closed session of parliament, Erdogan warned ministers, "The region is being shaped anew; we need to have a place at that table...
Turkish officials tell TIME that Ankara wants to station some troops between Baghdad and the northern Kurdish stronghold of Suleimaniyah, a move that would upset Iraqi Kurds. Aware of the risk of violence such a move would pose, U.S. commanders are pushing to deploy the Turks elsewhere, between Baghdad and the Syrian border to the west. A senior Turkish official says Ankara is considering opening a new border post closer to the Syrian border where the Turkomans--a minority friendly to Ankara's interests--are prevalent, and where, they hope, Turkish troops will be able to enter Iraq safely. Winning...