In a move that casts a shadow over its 50-year strategic alliance with Washington, Turkey yesterday signalled that it was unwilling to offer the Bush administration any more than the use of its airspace.
With war imminent and Turkey's leaders still procrastinating, US officials had insisted overflight rights were the bare minimum necessary for an airborne assault on Iraq and for long-held hopes of a two-pronged ground offensive.
It means US troops in northern Iraq, unable to cross Turkey as had originally been expected, are likely to be few and lightly-armed.
Speaking early yesterday, the Turkish Justice Minister, Mr Cemil Cicek, implied that the motion expected to be approved by parliament would contain a clause permitting US planes to use Turkish airbases.
The Prime Minister, Mr Tayyip Erdogan, yesterday afternoon denied that, saying Turkey would not allow access to airbases even for refuelling.
Mr Cicek insisted that "if further \ requests emerge in the future we will evaluate them." For now, though, it seems the three dozen US ships moored for weeks off Turkey's south coast pending permission to unload will have to take their cargo of heavy armour elsewhere.
In response, Washington indicated it had scrapped an economic aid package worth about $30 billion in grants and loans.
Crippled by $90 billion of debts, Turkey's economy may still be bolstered with funds channelled from the IMF and World Bank, officials here and in the US say. "We do not want to see the Turkish economy collapse," one US official said yesterday. But his words failed to prevent Turkey's fragile currency slumping to an all-time low against the dollar.
Turkish financial circles were not alone in being shocked at this minimal offer of co-operation. "As far as I can see, there is neither rhyme nor reason to the government's approach," political scientist Mr Soli Ozel said, "unless certain people in Turkey have sinister plans to enter northern Iraq alone."
He has a point. For parliament is also likely to vote today to allow Turkish troops into northern Iraq, a measure Ankara says is necessary to protect Iraq's Turkish-speaking minority and to prevent refugees crossing Turkey's border.
While Mr Cicek insisted yesterday morning that "it has been agreed in principle during negotiations [with Washington] that Turkish soldiers will be allowed to be stationed in Iraq," Western officials here were unsure whether earlier plans for a Turkish buffer zone in Iraq still stood.
"Washington has repeatedly said it doesn't want troops who are not part of the coalition forces going into Iraq," said one, adding that it was not yet clear whether Turkey was still in the coalition.
After a meeting in Ankara yesterday, Iraqi opposition leaders warned that Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq could spark "a war within a war". - (Reuters)