31 October 2003

Around the World, Politics of Iraq Occupation Hit Home

'Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator in Iraq, recently claimed that the country's sensitivities on Turkish troops stemmed from 400 years of 'colonialist' Ottoman Empire rule,' writes columnist Derya Saza in Milliyet, one of the country's biggest circulation newspapers.

In a translation by Turkishpress.com, Saza asks, 'If the Iraqis still feel this way about the Ottoman Empire after almost a century later, I wonder how many years it will take them to forget the current occupation? History will never forget the colonialists of the 21st century who bombed and destroyed a country for weeks, using falsified horror stories about alleged weapons of mass destruction.'

Saza says Turkey should now withdraw its offer to send troops.

'Bremer recently stated that Turkey must solve its problems on the troop deployment issue by negotiating directly with Iraq's Governing Council. The only proper response to this demeaning statement is sending the issue back to our Parliament. It seems that not only Iraqi Kurds and Arabs, but also Washington opposes Turkish troop deployment! So, what's Ankara waiting for to declare that our soldiers won't go there after all?'



Why does the war party believe no-one ever reads their stuff? Does Bremer imagine that Iraqis are incapable of reading the statement about their hatred of the Ottomon occupation and not applying it to the US occupation?

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