ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002099 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/SE, EUR/PD, NEA/PD, DRL JCS PASS J-5/CDR S. WRIGHT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR TU SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2003 THIS REPORT WILL PRESENT A TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER THREE THEMES: HEADLINES BRIEFING EDITORIAL OPINION -------------- HEADLINES MASS APPEAL Rumsfeld: Operation plan not mine - Hurriyet `Civil war' in Pentagon - Milliyet Iraqi suicide attacks cause panic - Hurriyet 3/31 Al-Qaida might strike in Turkey - Milliyet `Friendly fire' casualties continue - Milliyet 3/30 Human bombs vs. smart missiles - Sabah Civilians massacred: 58 dead - Sabah 3/29 Worldwide front against war expanding - Vatan Khalilzad to Turkomen: Accept Kurdistan - Turkiye Iran against Turkish presence in N. Iraq - Aksam `Freedom' massacre: 55 dead, mostly women, children - Aksam 3/29 U.S. remembers Rommell, changes operation plan - Aksam 3/29 OPINION MAKERS Americans pause for a while - Radikal Invaders halt ground advance - Cumhuriyet 3/30 6,000 bombs, 675 missiles - Radikal Second marketplace massacre: 60 dead - Radikal 3/30 War spreading: Suicide bombers in Baghdad - Cumhuriyet Peshmerges advance on Kirkuk - Cumhuriyet 3/29 Robin Cook: British troops must withdraw - Yeni Safak 4,000 Arab volunteers in Iraq - Zaman Iraq might become a second Palestine - Zaman 3/30 `Dark ties' obliged Perle to resign - Zaman 2/29 BRIEFING Iraq: "Cumhuriyet" claims that the U.S. refrained from signing a formal protocol about coordination with Turkey in Northern Iraq. U.S. officials believe that a verbal understanding regarding Iraq's territorial integrity should be sufficient for Ankara. U.S. Presidential Envoy Khalilzad's meetings in Ankara will continue on Monday. Khalilzad told the Turkish side that Northern Iraqi Kurdish groups welcomed the statement by TGS Chief General Ozkok. Prime Minister Erdogan assured a German daily that Turkey has no intention to occupy Northern Iraq. Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi said that Turkey's concerns over Iraq's territorial integrity are understandable, but that Tehran is against a Turkish military presence in Northern Iraq, "Aksam" reports. Meanwhile, Turkey's former president Suleyman Demirel slammed the AKP government for `damaging the 50-year old friendship with the U.S. for nothing.' Demirel said Prime Minister Erdogan's maneuvers proved that he could not be trusted. He also voiced concern that Turkey might be blamed for not opening a Northern Front if the war takes longer than expected and leads to increased casualties. `Turkey should have joined the international coalition if it wanted to have a role in Northern Iraq,' Demirel said. A "Milliyet" front page story claims that Al- Qaida has been preparing since last November for attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets in Turkey. The Turkish police have taken extraordinary security measures to protect foreign missions and companies, papers report. Dailies report that Turkish villagers threw stones at a truck convoy carrying U.S. military equipment from Mardin en route to Incirlik and Iskenderun. Justice Minister and government Spokesman Cemil Cicek, an influential figure in the AKP cabinet, said on Sunday that Turkey should not be blamed for the failure of Americans in the operation. `Turkey and the U.S. have different priorities in Northern Iraq; we have no imperialist goal in the region, and will intervene solely for humanitarian reasons,' Cicek said. Reports note Ankara is greatly concerned about the Kurdish peshmerges' advance on Kirkuk. Sunday's reports say Khalilzad has convinced Kurdish groups and the Turkomen to attend a meeting with Turkey and the U.S. in Ankara or the Turkish border town of Silopi next week. Saturday's dailies say that `fear, pain, and hatred' reigns in Baghdad following a `second marketplace killing' by an unidentified missile. The missile attack claimed about 60 lives. Papers report growing fear among coalition soldiers after a suicide attack in Najaf, in which four Americans were killed. Coalition soldiers have now started shooting at civilian targets without warning, according to reports. Court rejects release of DEP members: The State Security Court (SSC) Friday refused to free four Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP) parliamentarians jailed nine years ago. European parliamentarians and human rights activists who observed the hearing were disappointed by the verdict, papers report. Turkey was widely criticised for jailing the four, who won an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The retrial could take many months. Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Selim Sadak, and Orhan Dogan would not normally be entitled to release for another two years. EDITORIAL OPINION: War in Iraq "Did the US stumble?" Yilmaz Oztuna opined in conservative-mass appeal Turkiye (3/31): "The ongoing speculation about the US stumbling in the Iraq war and dragging itself into a Vietnam-like situation should be watched carefully. Such rhetoric will not do any good for Turkey or its relations with the US, because this kind of propaganda stems from ideological positions. Turkish-American relations as well as the US superpower role around the world should be taken seriously and analyzed free of ideological dogma. Otherwise, it will only distance Turkey further from being a member of the contemporary civilized club. . However, it is true to a certain extent that the US has made some tactical mistakes in its war strategy. It does not matter really at this point whether the White House or the Pentagon is to blame. But the fact of the matter is that the US apparently began the operation without having enough military build-up." "The miscalculation" Sami Kohen wrote in mass appeal Milliyet (3/31): "The coalition force has started to admit that the war is not moving as it was planned. Even President Bush accepts the fact that it might take longer than the 2 or 3 weeks to finish the job. . In spite all the negative factors and delays, the overall conviction is that the US will win the war in the end. Even France agrees with this. . It is also true that the war will take weeks, and maybe months. In other words, there will be more blood and more tears. Moreover, it remains to be seen how the different resistance tactics by Saddam's regime will be countered by the coalition's undeniably superior military and technological power. Even when the tide turns in favor of the coalition's forces, we should still not expect a swift ending. It seems that winning people's hearts will be harder than winning the war itself, and will take much more time." PEARSON