KurdistanObserver.com

Turkey Should Take Iraq More Seriously
By: Ilnur Cevik

ilnurcevik@yahoo.com

The New Anatolian  June 2, 2006

Turkey repeatedly emphasizes the importance it attaches to Iraq, but when it comes down to the basics, Ankara doesn't practice what it preaches.

Look at Wednesday's newspaper stories and you'll understand what we mean.

On one page you will see Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki happily in a very friendly atmosphere exchanging a laugh with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari. Iran, a neighbor of Iraq like Turkey, is said to be positioning itself to play a major role in Iraq at a time when American influence is showing signs of faltering.

Thanks to the massive Shiite Arab majority in Iraq, Iran has successfully built inroads into Baghdad and has become an influential country. So it's only normal for the Iranian foreign minister to show up in Baghdad right under the noses of the Americans to make this show of force.

But where is the Turkish foreign minister? Or at least where is a Turkish Cabinet minister?

If Iraq is so important, why just send your Foreign Ministry's coordinator for Iraq to Baghdad to meet "some" leaders, when the foreign minister himself should be there?

It's because Turkey is still an outcaste in Iraq. It has simply disqualified itself from the game.

Turkey offended the Iraqi leadership by sending Ambassador Oguz Celikkol to Baghdad to meet the leadership, and then invited former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to Ankara. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was offended not only because Celikkol failed to mention the visit at their meeting in Baghdad, but because he felt Ankara tried to manipulate Baghdad politics through this incident. Talabani made his anger public...

Turkey should act as a major player in Iraq, but to do this it has to show the will and the means to do it.

Let us hope things start to improve if and when Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Barham Saleh visits Ankara in the second half of next week...