Incirlik permission without permit
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The government took an important step for the recovery of Turco-U.S. relations that were damaged after the Iraq war and the Cabinet decided to open all airports and ports of Turkey for the usage of U.S. in the framework of the rebuilding of Iraq, in its meeting on Monday.
The request for the usage of bases and ports was conveyed by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul during the World Economic Forum meetings held in Jordan last week. The request was also conveyed to Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal, during his visit to Washington last week.
The Cabinet decision was enlarged to embrace not only U.S. but also the other countries that wanted to contribute to the rebuilding process in Iraq, in order to avoid the sense that this permission was only given to U.S. Therefore, the government gave the message that; Turkey is at the same distance to all countries.
The government took this decision, which was related with humanitarian aid and rebuilding of Iraq, in the framework of the Article 1483 of UN resolutions and limited it with one year.
Gul: No permit necessary
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that, in line with the decisions taken in the Cabinet meeting on Monday, all the countries that would send humanitarian aid to Iraq could use the airports, ports and border gates of Turkey. Gul also said that those foreign troops, which would take place in peacekeeping force in Iraq, could pass through Turkish soil and there was no need for a Permit for this passage. Gul said that the documents related with the decision would also be conveyed to the Cankaya Kiosk.
Erdogan: Relations with U.S. at a positive level
In his address at the AKP group meeting at Parliament on Tuesday, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turco-U.S. relations continued on a strong basis and in the framework of the strategic partnership. Erdogan said that the visit of Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal to Washington was very positive and that, “Turkey conveyed some proposals to U.S. about the rebuilding of Iraq and opinions were shared. It was decided that, in the framework of humanitarian aid, Iraqi oil will be delivered to Iskenderun in TIRs to be marketed to the world and these vehicles will return Iraq with gasoline.”