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| Axis of Evil |
| Turkish premier predicts Iraq war will be averted |
| 2003-01-13 |
| Tehran Times Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Sunday that the outbreak of war on Iraq is unlikely. Premier Gul told reporters even U.S. President George W. Bush prefers a diplomatic solution to the Iraqi crisis. At this point, he's hoping to scare Sammy out of office. I don't think that'll work, and if it did, it would raise further problems that we'll have to clean up ten years from now... Gul said his tour to the regional countries is aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the problem and even the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell believe that the Iraqi crisis should be settled through peaceful means. Referring to the fact that Turkey insists on the territorial integrity of Iraq, Gul rejected reports that Turkey is reasserting claims dating back to the Ottoman Empire over the oil-rich Iraqi regions of Kirkuk and Mosul. The claims were attributed to Foreign Minister in the English newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. Yasar Yakis said he was "examining treaties from the early 20th century to see whether Turkey had a claim to the oil fields of the Mosul and Kirkuk provinces, which the Turks ruled during the Ottoman Times." Becoming an oil producer would help the Turkish economy along... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #3 Certainly Debka (the National Enquirer of the War on Terror) agrees. It basically says the Turks are asking various Arab oil governments to match the US offer for cooperation vs. Iraq. Forget about the EU, according to this post they'd consider joining the Axis of Evil for about $10BB. |
| Posted by: JAB 2003-01-13 17:33:20 |
| #2 Why not? Pakland's trying hard to do it. Soddy Arabia could have cut a few people's heads off and swept everything under the rug, and pretended it was just a misunderstanding among friends - but they chose not to. Egypt continues making faces and calling names. A few have taken a hard look at the conflict of civilizations and noticed that it probably won't be Riyadh that's going to win. That's why Qaddafi's trying not to be a lunatic, and Sudan's settled down dramatically. In all the Muslim countries, there's a sizable contingent rooting for what they see at the home team, even though victory for the home team means a dark age for the whole world. I don't think their wiring's up to code, myself, but I also think that down the road we're going to see some countries we haven't expected to, to discover that they've always liked us, really. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-01-13 14:43:40 |
| #1 I know relatively little about the new semi-fundo government in Turkey. Is it remotely possible that they would foreswear the benefits of being the best friend of a superpower in favor of islamic solidarity with Iraq? Hopefully they are just driving a harder bargain and want some oil thrown in. |
| Posted by: JAB 2003-01-13 14:15:43 |