From: draskovi@usc.edu (Zoran Draskovic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Yu2
Date: 11 Sep 1992 03:14:54 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu


            TURKS DO NOT GIVE UP IDEA OF MILITARY
             INTERVENTION IN BOSNIA- HERZEGOVINA

                       By Stevan Cordas

    Belgrade, Sept 8th (TANJUG) - Selami Jordan,
26-year-old Turkish volunteer in the war in the ex-Yugoslav
republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina killed in Sarajevo late
August, overnight became a national hero of Turkey because
he fell in the war "against Serb agressors". Even among
Islamic countries, Turkey is one of the few that even after
the London Conference advocates a military option in the
resolution of Yugoslavia's crisis. Turkey's stance,
however, does not arouse any particular attention in
western countries, especially the U.S. which takes
aparently benevolent stand towards Turkey's hinted
"expansion from the Adriatic to the Great Wall of China,"
as was signaled by Turkish president Ozal a few months
earlier. Turkey now takes a very radical stand towards
Yugoslavia's crisis, especially the war in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, trying to fill a resulting vacuum with
its influence. In doing this, Ankara developed two
strategical aimsL the Balkans and the ex-Soviet Islamic
republics. No one knows how many Turkish volunteers are
fighting today on the Moslem side in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Official sources in Turkey, however say that about 40,000
Mujahedin are ready to leave for Bosnia-Herzegovina at any
time. Western sources say that volunteers as well as ammo
are channeled through to Bosnian Moslems, in addition to
other aid, financial assistance, food and the like.
Turkey's most different assistance to Moslems in
Bosnia-Herzegovina is being organized by Sadzida Silajdzic,
sister of the Bosnian Foreign Minister. Sadzida Silajdzic
has been appointed by Alija Izetbegovic as Bosnia-
Herzegovina's Consul General to Istanbul. Official Ankara,
quite cynically, almost every day is trying to reprimand
Serbs not only in Bosnia-Herzegovina but also in Belgrade,
altough it is precisely in Turkey's territory where a small
but atrocious war is being waged along with horrifying
ethnic cleansing, especially in Turkey's southeast where
several millions Kurds are living. Recently the Turkish
army has razed to the ground the town of Sirnak populated
by 30,000 Kurds. It has been shelling Kurdish settlements
even in Iranian and Iraqi territories. Western media,
however, turn a deaf ear to all these events. For them,
obviously, the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina is much more
attractive, but this fact may not excuse Ankara for all it
is doing to Kurds. Turkey's stand towards Yugoslavia's
crisis and the war in Bosnia- Herzegovina -- the stand that
has in virtually no time evolved from a moderate to an
extreme one -- clearly suggests it is yet above all a
religious war that is being waged in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Under such conditions, Turkey altough officially a lay
state, has distinctly aligned itself with 'its own' Moslem
side. The war in Bosnia- Herzegovina suits Turks also
because of drawing away the world public's attention from
the outstanding Kurdish issue.


    LIBERATION SAYS EGYPTIAN OFFICER SIDES WITH MOSLEMS

    Paris, September 8 (TANJUG) - Some officers of the U.N.
Protection Force (UNPROFOR) are concealing the real
situation on the battlefront in Sarajevo, especially the
truth about who is attacking the U.N. peace-keepers, the
Paris daily Liberation said on Tuesday. Citing members of
the UNPROFOR troops, Liberation special correspondent from
Sarajevo Didier Francoise said one of the officers was a
liason officer from Egypt, but did not give his name. An
Egyptian unit joined 1,500 UNPROFOR troops in Sarajevo last
month to help safeguard the Sarajevo airport. "We are
systematically being attacked by Moslems, but in such cases
the Egyptian colonel is persistently addressing Serb
fighters", Liberation quoted French soldiers in Sarajevo as
saying. Last week, the Moslem militia shelled a French
light armoured vehicle, wounding three French soldiers and
killing their translator, Liberation said. According to the
same source, a French unit escorting a liaison team on
August 14 ran into a Moslem ambush in northern Sarajevo and
was nearly killed. "The Ukrainian unit of the UNPROFOR is
also complaining of Moslem attacks", claimed French
soldiers. They said they would no longer accept to be
'scapegoats' for the army of Alija Izetbegovic. Since the
outbreak of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and around the
capital Sarajevo, the Moslem-Croat forces have been
attacking UNPROFOR members, foreign reporters accompanying
the UNPROFOR and civilians in Sarajevo. UNPROFOR members
said they were carying out only light arms, and reported
frequent violations of the order that all weapons should be
removed minimum 500 meters of their positions in Sarajevo,
for which they believe Egyptian officer was responsible.
They described him as "very incompetent" also in terms of
military affairs. French soldiers believe that in such a
situation UNPROFOR's six-month mandate is "too-long",
bearing in mind problems caused by UNPROFOR officers who do
not speak English.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.yugoslavia:8566 soc.culture.greek:8569