From: clarinews@clarinet.com (SEVA ULMAN)
Newsgroups:
 clari.news.hot.iraq,clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.issues.conflict,cla
 ri.news.europe,clari.news.group
Subject: Coalition partners ask Turkey to allow forces to stay
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, war & peace,
        social issues, general ethnic, special interest
Date: 11 Dec 92 16:51 GMT
Location: turkey, mideast
ACategory: international
Slugword: iraq-kurds
Priority: regular
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 487; Id: z3448; Sel: xxigf; Adate: 12-11-1155aes
Codes: &igfrxx., &ixwrtu., &ijerxp., tncn....

        ANKARA, Turkey (UPI) -- The United States, Britain and France asked
Ankara Friday to allow coalition forces to remain on Turkish soil
another six months to continue sending humanitarian aid to Iraqi Kurds
and protect them from possible attack by Baghdad's troops.
        The request came at a meeting in Ankara between officials from the
three Western countries and Turkish representatives.
        The meeting took place days before the Grand National Assembly, or
Parliament, was due to debate a six-month extension of the mandate of
the coalition forces in Turkey, due to be expire Dec. 31.
        The government of Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel needs the approval
of Parliament to allow the coalition forces to stay.
        A joint statement issued after the meeting said the United States,
Britain and France sought ``the concurrence of Turkey for an extension
of Operation Provide Comfort,'' in which the coalition forces provide
humanitarian assistance to Iraqi Kurds.
        Ankara's Western allies said Turkey's ``continued participation in
this collective endeavor is essential for the preservation of calm in
the region.''
        Operation Provide Comfort is being run in parallel with another
operation code-named ``Poised Hammer,'' under which coalition warplanes
remain on standby in Turkey as a rapid reaction force to strike at Iraqi
troops in case they attack the Kurds again.
        Both operations were begun in 1991, after forces loyal to Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein launched brutal attacks on the Kurdish
civilians in northern Iraq, in the wake of an uprising led by rebel
Peshmergas, or Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas.
        The Iraqi military attacks led to a massive flight of Kurdish
refugees to the borders of Turkey and Iran.
        The Kurds only returned home after the Western allies, acting under a
U.N. Security Council resolution, set up a safe haven for them in
northern Iraq, and established a ``no-fly zone'' north of the 36th
parallel to keep Iraqi aircraft from attacking civilians.
        Turkey, a coalition partner in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq,
allowed the Western forces to use its territory, but some opinion polls
have indicated recently that a sizeable number of Turks preferred that
the coalition troops now pull out.
        The three Western countries represented in Friday's meeting noted
that there was still a need for ``deterrence against renewed fighting''
in northern Iraq.
        The joint statement said that with this deterrence, and ``by
providing for the basic needs of the people, it remained possible to
avoid successfully a recurrence of the tragic events of Spring 1991.''
        The participants however ``reiterated their government's firm stand
for the preservation of the independence, unity and territorial
integrity of Iraq,'' and their opposition to acts ``that may lead to
the...dismemberment of that country,'' it said.


>From clarinews@clarinet.com (UPI) Fri Dec 11 18:29:48 1992