Recep Tayyup Erdogan was banned from running for election last November although his Justice and Development Party won a landslide victory. That ban has expired and he will run for a seat in parliament on behalf of the southeastern Siirt Province in the provincial election Sunday, March 9. From there, he will jump straight into the prime minister?s seat as head of the ruling party.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly?s Ankara sources quote prime minister Abdullah Gul as informing confidants that he has agreed to step down and serve as deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the Erdogan government. It is all settled between them.

We are also informed that Erdogan has meanwhile informed Washington that, a week after taking office, he will have completed the process for gaining a parliamentary majority to allow US troops to use Turkey as a launch pad into Iraq, overruling the March 1 defeat of that motion. This would mean that the second front, which was thrown in doubt by the first vote, can go into operation around mid-March or shortly after.

Looks like it. CNN says the same.
- jim 3-09-2003 7:36 pm

It's news, but not totally unexpected. Despite continuing popular opposition to the war, Erdogan will fire some of the more anti-war ministers in his cabinet, see what extra concessions he can get out of Washington, then resubmit the troops vote to Parliament after a week or so. Don't know where the GIs who were waiting to enter Turkey are right now, but it looks like Ankara doesn't want its own forces to be shut out of northern Iraq...Realism wins out over principle?


- bruno 3-10-2003 5:56 pm