“USA Should Not Make Turkey Partner in War Crimes”

Pacifists have accused the USA of withdrawing from Iraq not out of respect for human rights but in order to intensify the occupation. They have also protested at the USA’s planned use of Turkey in the withdrawal process.

Tolga Korkut

“USA Should Not Make Turkey Partner in War Crimes”

The Global Peace and Justice Coalition (Küresel BAK) has protested against the USA using Turkey in the planned withdrawal of its troops from Iraq. The organisation stated, “Just as we prevented the USA from entering Iraq via Turkey on 1 March 2003, we will definitely not allow them to withdraw from Iraq via Turkey.”

Newly-elected US President Barack Obama has announced that the combat forces, which make up two thirds of the 142,000 soldiers in Iraq, will be withdrawn by 31 August 2010, and that the remaining 35 to 50,000 soldiers would be pulled out by the end of 2011.

Military analysts and US army officials have said that for such a quick withdrawal to take place, the US would have to make use of other countries, including Turkey.

Withdrawing in order to intensify occupation of Afghanistan and region

As for the Global Peace and Justice Coalition, they believe that the withdrawal of troops is not a sign that the US is “giving up on imperialist war politics”. Rather, so the organisation, the US is aiming at “intensifying and spreading the occupation it has been continuing in Afghanistan by subcontracting NATO, which is being defeated there.”

“The USA are not withdrawing because they have accepted occupation as a crime against humanity, but rather because they have turned Iraq into something unrecognisable, and have found nothing left to pillage and seize. They are withdrawing because the destruction and excessive violence of the last six years cannot be exceeded, because they have destroyed a third of Felluce, and because they have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The way to winning the war in Afghanistan is to take the soldiers from Iraq in order to use them in Afghanistan.”

The Coalition has announced that it will oppose Turkey facilitating the withdrawal of the US army and has called on Turkish authorities not to cooperate with the US military:

“Do not let the murderers of the Iraqi people use the bases, airports and ports. How can those who told the Israeli President at Davos ‘You know how to kill people’ become the USA’s partners in crime when this country, experienced in killing people, mass killings and deceitful occupations, wants to use Turkey to withdraw from Iraq? Don’t turn into the puppet of the USA, which is trying to get Turkey involved in spilling more blood in Afghanistan.” (TK/AG)