In an Interview with the Turkish newspaper Aydinlik, Tariq Aziz, Iraq's Deputy PM, said:"…In my humble opinion, it is in the best interest of Iraq and Turkey not to heed the American schemes. In the past, we always maintained good relations with Turkey  except during the aggression of 1991, which resulted in great losses to both Turkey and Iraq… Now the situation is calm and we are resuming economic and trade relations with Turkey… also, we are trying to solve old problems with Iran peacefully and reasonably…"

Asked whether the Kurds in northern Iraq will play a similar role to that of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, Aziz replied: "It is not realistic, and it shows that America is stupid and does not know the region well. The Kurdish groups are not the Northern Alliance, they were never in power in Baghdad the way the Alliance was in Afghanistan... And to a certain extent, we maintained peaceful relations with the two Kurdish groups…Therefore they don't have a good reason to participate in a strike against Iraq… If Iraq, or any country in the region is divided ethnically, the whole region will explode… and if the Kurds create a puppet state [in Iraq] under the U.S. patronage, this will absolutely lead to a similar situation in neighboring countries…"

Different Opinions on the Territorial Integrity of Iraq

In a meeting held by the Iraqi Turkoman Intellectuals' Association, Minister Dogru said Turkey is for the territorial integrity of the country Iraq. Minister Dogru said Turkey should be strengthened in the region and they want the Iraqi Turkomans to live in peace. Mr. Dogru said a strong Turkey would provide totally different solutions to problems of northern Iraq."

In the same meeting, President of [the] Turkish Chamber of Commerce in Ankara Sinan Aygun mentioned the efforts to establish a Kurdish state in the region and said: "With God's will, we will take the lost territory back. We would want nothing but to have Mossul and Kirkuk back as our land."