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Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has rejected the condition set by the US Senate for providing 1 billion US dollars in aid to Ankara, the Anatolian News Agency reported Wednesday.
Gul, who was in Belgrade for the summit of the Southeast European Countries Cooperation Process, said that Turkey has already stated its policy regarding the situation in northern Iraq.
He stressed that Turkish troops will not enter northern Iraq "if a terrorist incident did not occur in northern Iraq and there was not a huge refugee inflow."
Gul was responding to the US Senate's passing of an additional war budget on Tuesday that promised a grant of 1 billion dollars to Turkey on condition that Turkey will not send troops unilaterally into northern Iraq.
US President George Bush could cut off the whole or part of the loan according to his judgment on Turkey's fulfillment of the US demands, which also included a call for economic reforms.
Noting that Turkey will not accept any such condition, Gul said Turkey only makes decisions on the related issues by itself.
"If Turkey's concerns do not happen, that is, if it (northern Iraq) does not become a den for terrorists and there will not be a big migration movement, we already have a mutual agreement. But if those concerns happens, we will do what is required," he said.
Turkey, which is facing a separatist Kurdish movement in its southeast, has threatened to send troops into northern Iraq to prevent the establishment of an independence Kurdish state or possible influx of refugees. But it withheld the decision under the US pressure.
(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2003)
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