- (AFP) -- Turkey is planning to allow some 62,000 US troops
to be deployed on its territory ahead of a possible attack on neighboring
Iraq, Anatolia news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin
as saying.
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- NTV television said the government would also allow the
United States to deploy 255 military aircraft and 65 helicopters on Turkish
territory.
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- The news channel said a government motion asking parliament
to approve the deployment of the US forces for a period of six months was
submitted to the assembly late Tuesday.
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- Faced with intense pressure from Washington, Ankara reluctantly
decided Monday to ask parliament to approve the deployment of US soldiers
in Turkey and the dispatch of Turkish troops to northern Iraq, ahead of
a possible war.
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- Parliamentary sources said the vote could take place
Wednesday.
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- Public opinion in Turkey is firmly opposed to a war and
MPs from the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) have voiced disquiet
at being forced to approve the US deployment, especially as a deal on economic
compensation for Turkey for war damage has not yet been reached with Washington.
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- Ertugrul Yalcinbayir, another of the three deputy prime
ministers, said it was technically possible for parliament to reduce the
six-month limit for the US soldiers' presence, NTV news channel reported
Tuesday.
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- Yalcinbayir said the government motion was unlikely to
set a limit on the number of Turkish soldiers Ankara could send to Kurdish-controlled
northern Iraq.
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