Turkey Nervously Awaits US Response 

Sep 15, 2001

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's army stood at alert as NATO's only Muslim member
worried that U.S. military retaliation for this week's terrorist attacks could target its
neighbors and place further strain on its threadbare economy.

Turkey's armed forces could be involved in a NATO attack or its bases could be used.

An attack on Afghanistan - believed to harbor Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect for
Tuesday's attacks - ``wouldn't be much of a problem for Turkey,'' wrote Sami Kohen, a
commentator for Milliyet, a daily newspaper.

But if Iraq turns out to have been involved in Tuesday's attacks - or if it is targeted for past
actions - then Turkey's role could be crucial, forcing the government to answer awkward
strategic questions.

``I suspect ... that in the corridors of the Foreign Ministry they were virtually praying
yesterday that Baghdad isn't the target,'' columnist Fatih Cekirge wrote Friday in the daily
newspaper Star. ``Because if Baghdad is the target for a NATO or U.S. attack, it could mean
the destruction of the Baghdad administration, and a new map of Iraq.''

That would reopen an issue the Turkish government hoped was closed after the 1991
Persian Gulf War - the possibility of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq. Already local leaders
in the north enjoy broad autonomy from Baghdad, and Washington has long seen the Kurds
as central to any anti-Saddam coalition.

Turkey argued against a ground attack on Iraq during the Gulf War, fearing that rebellious
Kurds, perhaps with U.S. backing, would seize the opportunity to establish an independent
Kurdish state in the north that would offer an example for Turkey's estimated 12 million
Kurds. Turkey fought a 15-year war against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels that cost
some 37,000 lives, and continues to bar Kurdish-language broadcasting and education.

No matter what happens militarily, Turkey's battered economy is likely to suffer further
blows.
-------------------------------