The Lincoln Plawg

Sunday, March 16, 2003 12:54 a.m.

Now Turkey hosts the Zalmay Khalilzad Show....

So, what's going on?

[I typed that sentence in all good faith, before hitting the sources. The more I read, the less I know....]

The US, it seems, have given up trying to persuade the Turks. The ubiquitous Zalmay Khalilzad was apparently sent in to call time on the Ankara pantomime; and to warn

Turkey not to go ahead with plans to send its own army into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

Good luck with that. The Turkish war bribe was withdrawn yesterday, in any case (as Powell is supposed to have told a Congressional committee [1]) - on the other hand, this from AP, datelined Saturday at 1710 EST,says

A senior U.S. official said Washington's offer to give Turkey $15-billion (U.S.) in economic aid if it allowed the U.S. deployment was now "off the table."
"The package was time-bound and we have moved on time-wise," the official said on condition of anonymity. He did not indicate if a new offer could be negotiated if Turkey did allow in the U.S. troops.
In Washington, a senior White House official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the offer was withdrawn and that the United States was proceeding with plans that do not include Turkey.

No mention of Powell in the AP story at all. I suspect, therefore, the LA Times story (the Globe is reprinting it) to be a crock.

According to the - evidently unreliable - LA Times piece, US ships waiting to unload at Turkish ports are scooting round (via the Suez Canal - let's give a big hand to President Hosni Mubarak) bound for Gulf ports.

And, as for the necessary vote of confidence in Erdogan as Prime Minister - the LA Times says

next week

whereas the Turkish Press says March 23 - which could only be taken as next week in the most twisted and sophistical way.

For what it's worth, the Times piece does say that

Turkish officials had expected Khalilzad to make a last-ditch appeal for Turkey's support for a northern front. Instead, he came to Ankara to dissuade officials from sending Turkish troops into northern Iraq, a US official said.

Which makes one wonder what line State was feeding the Turks to give them the wrong impression (assuming that the Turks, having taken a leaf out of the Bush-Blair playbook, aren't lying their heads off...); whether the Turks don't now feel aggrieved at having been misled; what notice the Turks should take of Zalmay after having been jerked around - without a fresh cash offer to compensate them for their distress; and whether Turkish compliance in Northern Iraq (not to mention overflight rights) may, after all, persuade Uncle Sam that it is worth his while to say it with greenbacks.

Amazingly, George's Asiatic fixer seems to believe his best chance of encouraging the Turks to take a self-denying ordinance on occupying Iraqi Kurdistan is by joining forces with Ahmed Chalabi (can you say Sinatra?) and his Farouk Karno's Army in some kind of diplomatic Oprah - with Erdogan backstage listening to the plaintive pleas, punctuated by ooh-ing and clapping from the audience - before being brought out to be shamed into restraint [2].

Nothing, I'd have thought, more likely to get Erdogan buddying up with Bulent Arinc in a rejectionist front.

That's what it says on the Globe page. I can't trace that Powell was talking to a Congressional committee on Friday. He did appear before the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs on Thursday. (Do they even have Congressional committee meetings on Fridays?)
The UPI piece impliedly reports as recent the movement of 5,000 Badr forces of the Iranian-backed SCIRI (representing Iraqi Shi'ites) - the news was at least two weeks old when I mentioned it on March 3!