Ankara, Mar 22: Turkey has opened its airspace to US warplanes bound for Iraq after 24 hours of tense gamesmanship during which it sought to win approval for its own military intervention in northern Iraq. "It has been determined that it is in turkey's interests to open Turkish airspace," Defence minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters yesterday after a meeting with prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, army chief Hilmi Ozkok and senior officials on the Iraq war.
The decision is likely to please Washington, where officials earlier accused the Ankara government and the Turkish military of "obstructionism" by keeping its airspace closed, despite a vote by parliament to open it Thursday.
Access to air corridors over turkey is vital to US plans to open a second front against Iraq, after the Turkish parliament earlier this month rejected a us request to deploy 62,000 soldiers here.
Washington is now planning to airlift troops over Turkish territory into Iraq to launch an invasion from the north in addition to the on going assault from the south.
The deadlock, Turkish government sources said, emerged because of Washington's firm opposition to Turkish plans to send its troops into northern Iraq.
Gonul told reporters there was still no deal on the possible dispatch of Turkish troops to northern Iraq, though "talks are continuing on this issue."
A source close to the Turkish government earlier said that Ankara had been seeking to secure simultaneous deals on the dispatch of Turkish troops and the opening of its airspace.
Bureau Report