The Iraqi opposition meeting in Nevsehir, southeast of Central Anatolia, the nearest place ever to Iraq, witnessed U.S. attendance. Counselor Bernard Gainer from the U.S. embassy attended the conference. Gainer refused to make any comment about the conference but said that he is attending to learn. His visit carried extra importance to the conference since Iraq's Prime Minister Tariq Aziz will visit Turkey on Sept. 30, the same day as U.S. State Department Elisabeth Johns responsible for Iraq. Furthermore, U.S. deputy Defense Secretary Marc Grossman is visiting France and Russia currently.

The wind is blowing against the Iraqi Institute for Research because of the claim that not of the Kurdish opposition was not going to participate in the meeting, but these rumors ended with the visit of foreign relations responsible for Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Sadi Ahmed Pire who came to Turkey from Suleymaniye to attend the meeting. PUK Ankara representative Behrus Ghalali along with Pire participated in the "Iraq and Democracy" conference.

German, Russian and Japanese representatives also participated in the meeting.

Pire who attended the PUK-Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) meetings about a constitution denied claims that they signed an agreement on the constitution. Talking to a Turkish Daily News correspondent, Pire said that they are looking forward to reaching an agreement that everyone would agree on. Asked whether KDP and PUK shook hands and signed an agreement on a constitutional draft, Pire said work is going on but these are only guidelines.

Pire, delivering his speech to the audience in the opening ceremony, underlined that Kurds and Iraqi Turcomans have no problem since they fought together against Saddam and spent time in the same jails. Pire indicated that there are numbers speculated about the populations but they only serve Saddam Hussein. "We will return to the starting point if we follow this policy," Pire said. Pire and Gainer only shook hands when they were introduced to each other during a break.

Limited administrative system

Pire underlined that Kurds as well as Iraqi Turcomans have schools, newspapers and that Iraqi Turcoman parties can pursue their activities in their region. Pire did not explain in his six minute long speech the details of the system they are looking for.

Toma Hoshabe speaking in the name of the Iraqi Assyrian community indicated that the current Iraqi regime assimilated minorities. Hoshabe underlined that they have existed for almost 5,000 years in the region and asked to unite but also defended Assyrians and Turcomans rights.

US started to pay attention to ITC

Mustafa Ziya Ankara representative of Iraq Turcoman Front (ITC) told reporters that ITC attended a meeting led by Grossman and that ITC now takes place in the future of independent Iraq.

Ziya gave information about the steering committee meetings held in London since August and said that the three aims of the meetings are, to state a common reason for opposition among opposition parties, to create a common vision for the future of Iraq and to determine how the opposition will participate in a military operation in Iraq. Ziya underlined that ITC will also attend the meeting in Amsterdam predicted to take place in late October. Ziya mentioned that there are 73 opposition groups, the meeting committee is in touch with 52 of them but only 12 will attend the meeting.

Professor Hasan Koni delivered a speech at the conference about the situation of Iraq during World War I, its establishment process, the political context of Iraq and the actual political structure of Iraq.

He said that the Iraqi Baath party once applied violence to form a nation but things changed after the Gulf War. Koni underlined that Northern Iraq gained autonomy at that time but this still reflects a "smaller Iraq" due to Middle Eastern culture. "There are Assyrians and Iraqi Turcomans in the region but they cannot express their identity as Kurds and were also unable to during the Iraq regime. You cannot reach democracy by having two elections. Democracy needs openness and transparency. Turkey has not reached democracy after 80 years," Koni said.

Koni also indicated that the economy needs security, pointing out the fragile conditions in Kirkuk.

"If you are going to establish a federation, you need funds. Kirkuk is the only source for these funds with its rich oil reserves. In this light, without Kirkuk, nothing would work out," Koni commented.

Koni also indicated that "The west is not suddenly in love with the Iraqi opposition but they want to topple Hussein and therefore they support the opposition." Koni underlined deep differences between opposition groups simplifying that some are in favor of integrity but others of federalism.

Koni also questioned U.S. involvement in the region and said, "This involvement may continue for a long time since the region may explode due to a lack of democracy." Koni indicated that U.S. involvement may lead to "disintegration of Arab dictatorships and therefore the U.S. can only succeed if it promises Arab dictatorships that it will not bring democracy to them."