While receiving outgoing U.S. Ambassador Robert Pearson in his office on Monday, Ozkok thanked to the ambassador for his efforts for "Doing everything he can" to improve the relations between the two countries in times of problems during his 3-year term in Turkey. He said that Pearson had always been appreciated by themselves for his efforts and he had very good relations with the Turkish Armed Forces TSK during his term. "I thank the ambassador for his efforts" Ozkok said.
Ozkok then recalled the American raid on the office of the Turkish Special Forces in Suleymaniye on Friday, saying that "Our soldiers friendly welcomed about 100 U.S. soldiers who raided their office. But regretfully, these soldiers destroyed some equipment and captured some others, and took our troops to Kirkuk for interrogation. The government and the TSK, and personally I contacted U.S. officials at high levels to solve this issue. However, regretfully, this caused the biggest crisis of confidence between Turkey and U.S. There could be a tip-off received but the method to scrutinize this, should not be in this manner.
"We are shoulder-to-shoulder with U.S. since the Korean War. I do not think that this raid is based on an U.S. or US Military Forces policy. However, it was solved in a very long time and for this reason I doubt that it is solely a local incident.
"U.S. already knows that our units are there for a long time. There had been no problem during their presence. We do not know about this tip-off but investigating into it in this manner is totally unacceptable.
"Our soldiers resumed their work in the office. We attach importance on our relations with U.S. But our national pride and the pride of TSK; are very important. We hope that the investigations to be launched tomorrow take into account this honour. The biggest role here, belongs to the United States."
Splash Juice of Grapefruit to the Faces of Turks !
After the rejection of permit on March 1 American soldiers had to go to Iraq via air. Upon this development, an American military officer (most probably Colonel William Mayville) reportedly said; I think CENTCOM (the central commandership directing the Iraqi war) wanted to squeeze grapefruit juice to the faces of Turks. Such that: If you clash with us we will attack with a thousand paratroops. The incident in Suleymaniye also took place with the command of the same officer.
Erdogan: Make Me Talk With Who Is Responsible
In their phone conversation on Sunday, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said to Dick Cheney, Deputy President who said that he was unaware of the incident, that he could not understand since everyone in the U.S. administration claimed that they were unaware of the incident. Upon the response of Cheney, Erdogan asked to talk with the one who was responsible.
Cheney Called A Second Time
Dick Cheney called PM Erdogan on Monday again and gave information about the final situation in the incident. Cheney said that the joint commission would start to work on Tuesday in Kirkuk. Erdogan asked from Cheney to find those who created this incident and caused unnecessary tension between two countries and to take required action against them.
