The Turkish Army defended the deployments, announcing that the U.S. is continuing to refurbish its bases under the previous limited agreement that the Parliament approved in February, altough there is no base at all in Mardin-Kiziltepe where the U.S. troops are concentrating.
U.S. didn't care to wait for the debated measure to pass in the Turkish parliament
by bbm • Friday March 07, 2003 at 03:36 AM
Many U.S. military vehicles, which are claimed to be used for the modernization of the military bases, have begun to be deployed in parties towards the zones that are close to the Iraqi border.
6 March: As the resubmittance of a second measure giving permission to U.S. soldiers in Turkey for an attack on Iraq to the parliament is being debated, the Turkish Armed Forces announced that they approved the measure and the U.S. army didn't even care to wait for measure to pass in the Turkish parliament.
Many U.S. military vehicles, which are claimed to be used for the modernization of the military bases, have begun to be deployed in parties towards the zones that are close to the Iraqi border. Transport of these vehicles weren't given permission from the Iskenderun port prior to the denial of the measure in the Turkish Parliament last Sunday. There is no change in the measure situation since that time, even though the Turkish army has announced it supports the measure and a second measure is vote is being mentioned. Amongst the U.S. vehicles deployed there are the famous powerful jeep Hummers which were used during the 1991 Gulf war, and which can carry rocket ramps, and are very durable in tough road conditions and very difficult to be tilted. U.S. military vehicles which were stocked into trailers formed a big convoy. Consisting of 29 TIR's, 1 truck and a bus carrying 25 American soldiers, the convoy caused a traffic jam at the tollpay stations on the Iskenderun-Adana highway. After staying in Sanlıurfa for one night, the convoy will go to Mardin and Silopi. It has been observed that about 1.500 U.S. soldiers with war equipment and gas masks has come to the Iskenderun port.
The Turkish Army defended the deployments, announcing that the U.S. is continuing to refurbish its bases under the previous limited agreement that the Parliament approved in February, altough there is no base at all in Mardin-Kiziltepe where the U.S. troops are concentrating. In fact the U.S. army has 'rented' 9 silos in Mardin, a flour factory amongst them, and other public areas in Adana, Diyarbakir and Iskenderun, all locations without any official U.S. bases.
For photos of U.S. troop movements in Turkey:
http://istanbul.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/536.php
At the same time the Turkish army is making massive military vehicle deployments to Silopi, near the Iraqi border, for three days. Only on 7 March, up to 300 military vehicles were deployed, near to half of them were tanks and air defense systems were present. The biggest in three months, the deployment started on 5 March with a convoy of 200 military vehicles on the E-24 highway towards the Iraqi border.
Photographs of Turkish military deployment:
http://istanbul.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/516.php
Anti-war demonstrations carried on today as well.
Students from the Turkish Communist Party TKP gathered in the yard of the faculty of literature of Istanbul University and lighted a "peace torch" . The students opened a poster which said "there will be no permisson to war and yankees from the universities" and also shouted "yankee go home and no to war" slogans. A student as a spokesman for the group said that "as students who are from TKP, we are aware of our responsibility towards our people and our country, that's why from now on we are going to light up these torches of peace in this yard. The torches will be the symbols of our struggle towards imperialism and war." During this press talk another group hung another poster with the same contents on the 2nd floor wall of the building. After lighting the torch the group shouted slogans in English and Turkish and then went into the building.
Letter to Bush from children
In Elazig, 3rd grade students of Mustafa Sabuncu primary school, wrote a letter to Bush stating that they did not want war. They mentioned that children will suffer the most from this war and that is why they are against it. After sending their letter they went back to their schools carrying posters which said "let there be no war so that no children dies".
istanbul.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/541.php
Original: US ignores Turkish parliament and moves to Iraqi border