NORTH WATCH FORCE EXTENDED FOR SIX MONTHS

Extension of mandate coincided with American jet fire on Iraqi missile site. Beauty of democratic compromises were evident at debates. The course and consequences of the incident in Iraq was no embarrassment for Turkey and makes favourable impact on Turkish-Syrian talks in Ankara.

The incident on June 30^th when a U.S. F-16 attack jet fired on an Iraqi surface-to-air missile site because it locked onto British planes in the southern no-fly zone coincided with the debates in the Turkish Parliament about the mandate of the North Watch operations from Incirlik.

With the lowest profile possible Parliament decided to extend this mandate for six months from June 30^th, 1998.

The Prime Minister, his two deputies, the Foreign Minister or the Minister of State in charge of several foreign policy issues, Şükrü Sina Gürel, were all absent from the debates. The Government was represented by the Minister of State for Sports, Yücel Seçkiner, whose written statement to answer the opposition’s criticisms took exactly one minute and 50 seconds to read.

The political parties’ spokesmen used up their allotted 20 minutes each for commenting on the Government’s motion for this extension, but no one had anything much to say because they had all been in power during the 14 previous extensions of the mandate since this operation started in April 1991, under the title Provide Comfort.

Double standard politicians mumble excuses

Some opposition party spokesmen attempted to criticise the three coalition partners for giving into American pressure, but it went no further than the pot calling the kettle, “your bottom is black”, because their answer was ready, “Yours is blacker than mine.”

The ANAP spokesman, who was the last to speak, gave a brief account of the whole affair by reminding the audience that the Provide Comfort Force, a multinational air and ground allied force, arrived at Incirlik and on both sides of the Turkish-Iraqi frontier, straight after the Gulf war at the invitation of the ANAP Government in order to help Turkey handle the flood of refugees from Northern Iraq.

Parliament at that time was the scene of heated exchanges during the debates on the Government’s motion for a 3-month mandate for this allied force, Provide Comfort 1, but the ANAP majority managed to pass it by the skin of its teeth.

In July 1991, even tougher debates took place in Parliament for the Provide Comfort 2 force to stay in Turkey for another six months, but with the condition of no more extensions.

Meanwhile, general elections were held in Turkey and Demirel’s DYP came to power in coalition with Inönü’s SHP, the forerunner of today’s CHP led by Deniz Baykal. PM Demirel and his Deputy İnönü, under the heavy pressure of the USA, made an about-face and extended the mandate for six months as from the beginning of 1992, even though there was a parliamentary resolution to terminate it upon the expiry of its term on December 31^st, 1991. They only made some minor changes in this force by terminating the allied ground forces, but retained the most crucial force, the Air Force in Incirlik. They also resisted a subsequent American demand to put an end to these 6-monthly extensions by letting Parliament “defeat” their motion about it.

Thus started the era of twice yearly extensions of the Provide Comfort Force’s mandate, no matter which party was in power.

Erbakan makes changes in the status.

Finally the Haji-Baji Government was in power between June 1996 and June 1997 with Erbakan’s unflinching criticisms of the Provide Comfort Force. He had no alternative but to terminate the mandate upon its expiry at the end of 1996, but he could not resist the American pressure either and agreed to renovate it under another name, North Watch.

There were, however, quite a few changes in the status of the new force, also in the light of the past experience which was putting the military’s support behind Erbakan’s demands. The new status, as also emphasized in the Government’s motion accepted by Parliament last week, contains the following conditions for the North Watch Force:

• It will be in accord with the target and spirit of the UN Security Council’s resolutions adopted during the Gulf War.
• The territorial integrity of Iraq will be safeguarded.
• It will be composed of the Turkish, American and British Air Forces’ personnel. (There were also French forces before).
• The rules and principles established by Turkey will be observed.
• Within the Governmental Decree 477 dated December 25^th, 1996, flights will only be made to fulfil reconnaissance duties with the possibility of only “countering” the other side’s interceptions, if any.
• There will be Turkish and American co-commanders of this force and the flights will be regulated by them within a schedule they agree upon beforehand.

Impact on talks with Syria

These being the highlights of the North Watch Force’s mandate, it was obvious that the American F-16 that fired on the Iraqi missile site had not taken off from İncirlik, because there was no clarity at the initial press reports about the details of this incident. It was later clarified that the event had taken place in Southern Iraq and the American jets had taken off from Saudi Arabia.

In other words, Turkey’s democratic parliamentary system had worked out such a consensus with another parliamentary democracy on such a thorny issue that the Turkish nation could sleep without fear of an unexpected accomplished fact over its national security. To that extent, the NSC, which met on the same days, recommended the Government to extend the State of Emergency for another four months, but did not touch upon the mandate of the North Watch Force, because it had become a routine practice as far as the military side went.

Neither was there any embarrassment for Turkey towards a neighbour from the North Watch operation, while the Saudi Government was facing difficulties to explain to the public what kind of Arab brotherhood it was, particularly given the fact that Iraq was denying the claim that there was any locking onto the British aircraft.

This development was a factor facilitating the talks in Ankara on July 1^st with the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister for improving the bedevilled mutual relations, due to the Syrian support to the PKK terrorism. uras@ada.net.tr.