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Turkey Asks Parliament to Approve U-S Use of Military Bases - 2003-02-25


The Turkish government has sent parliament a request to open the country's military bases to 62-thousand U-S troops and more than 250 aircraft for a possible war against Iraq.

Reports from Ankara say parliament may vote on the request as early as Wednesday. The head of Turkey's ruling AKP party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is leading efforts to pass the bill, which some lawmakers have said they will oppose.

Ships carrying supplies for the U-S Army's Fourth Infantry Division are off Turkey's Mediterranean coast waiting for orders to unload.

The government sent the proposal to parliament even though U-S and Turkish officials are still negotiating some terms of the deployment. Turkey's foreign minister Yasar Yakis says the sides have reached agreement on military and political issues, but that talks continue on a U-S economic aid package that Ankara wants.

U-S military planners want to use Turkish military bases as a springboard for a potential invasion of Iraq from the north. In exchange, U-S officials have offered Turkey billions of dollars in grants and loans to cushion the blow a war would cause to Turkey's economy.

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