Güncelleme Tarihi:
The head of Turkish military General Yasar Buyukanit told Milliyet daily the withdrawal from northern
Thousands of Turkish troops, backed by warplanes and attack helicopters, crossed the border on February 21 to root out PKK separatists and destroy their numerous bases. It was
However Buyukanit said the decision to pull out was given long before Gates arrived in
Claims of an abrupt withdrawal were strengthened after a first text of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s monthly television address, said the operation was being pursued" even after Baghdad had confirmed that troops were leaving its territory. That version of the speech was distributed Friday afternoon with an embargo until the evening. A few hours later, his office distributed a second text of the speech that mentioned the pull-out.
Buyukanit defended Erdogan, saying that the prime minister knew about the withdrawal, but rightly did not mention it in the text of the address for the safety of the operation. "He could not have said they are withdrawing or will withdraw. It is not possible," the general said.
In Washington U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said on Friday that
When recalled that there is a concern in the public view in Turkey that withdrawal of Turkish troops from the north of Iraq came after Gates' visit and Bush's call for immediate withdrawal, Casey said, "First of all, we're pleased to see that the Turks carried out their commitment to us and to the Iraqis to have this operation be limited in scope and duration. That is something that they have always said they intended to do", the official Anatolian Agency reported.
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"I believe that the Turkish government took this decision because it made sense militarily and politically to the government of
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TURKISH MEDIA SUSPICIOUS
"Gates left, the operation ended," the leftist Radikal newspaper headline read on Saturday. "It has to be accepted that finishing the operation straight after Gates' departure was unfortunate timing," said Murat Yetkin, Radikal's Ankar bureau chief.
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Newspapers said the sudden decision to withdraw had taken even Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan by surprise, reminding that he had to change his speech text which due last night. "Erdogan was most surprised of all," said the Taraf daily.
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Erdogan denied he had been unaware of the plan to withdraw. "I have been in close contact with the General Staff since the beginning (of the operation), during every second of it," Erdogan told reporters late on Friday.