JAMIE COSTELLO: Well, at first we weren't getting any cooperation from theTurks but now that is all changing.
JOANN BAUER: It is. Sun foreign correspondent Doug Birch joins us now. He is on the phone and he is in Turkey. Doug, what are the latest developments there this morning?
DOUGLAS BIRCH: Well, this morning, Turkey's top general said that Turkey would not move massive amounts of troops and armor into northern Iraq without consulting with the United States. Which is very good news because the Turks have been threatening to do that for months now. And that could have started another war between two U.S. allies, the Kurds who live in northern Iraq and the Turks on this side of the border.
JB: Well, Doug, I have a question, because there have been reports here in the states that in fact Turkish troops have moved into northern Iraq. Is that not the case?
DB: Well, there are already about anywhere from 1,500 to 20,000 Turkish troops, depending on who you believe, in northern Iraq at this point. They have been there since around the 1990s. They set up this presence, which is not recognized officially by other nations. What they have threatened in the past few months, though, is to send thousands more troops in again, with heavy armor. Up until this point, they haven't been heavily armed. The purpose of the move would be to discourage the Kurds from setting up an independent state.
JC: Doug, have you seen any U.S. presence in Turkey?
DB: Yes, there was some U.S. presence here. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was in this area setting up supply depots. They were going to turn this area I'm in now -- I'm near the border, with Iraq -- the road out in front of my hotel here was going to be a main supply corridor for U.S. troops in northern Iraq. But the Turks decided to permit only U.S. overfly through Turkish territory, not to permit anything else, not to permit the basing of U.S. troops here, not to permit the re-supplying of U.S. troops through Turkish territory. It's a begrudging cooperation on the part of the Turkish government with the U.S. forces, but it's much, much less than Washington wanted.
JB: Let's talk a little bit this morning, Doug, about Turkey, because we've seen just howling winds and rain and sandstorms throughout Iraq. Are you guys getting any of that up where you are?
DB: No, up north, this is mountainous country. I'm at the banks of the Tigris River, which flows south several hundred miles into Baghdad. This land is a different kind of landscape, it's not desert, it's fertile plains. The weather has been cool, it's been cloudy and rainy and overcast and cool, but there isn't enough sand here to blow around so we haven't had a problem with that.
JC: All right. Doug Birch, thank you very much for joining us.
JOANN BAUER: It is. Sun foreign correspondent Doug Birch joins us now. He is on the phone and he is in Turkey. Doug, what are the latest developments there this morning?
DOUGLAS BIRCH: Well, this morning, Turkey's top general said that Turkey would not move massive amounts of troops and armor into northern Iraq without consulting with the United States. Which is very good news because the Turks have been threatening to do that for months now. And that could have started another war between two U.S. allies, the Kurds who live in northern Iraq and the Turks on this side of the border.
JB: Well, Doug, I have a question, because there have been reports here in the states that in fact Turkish troops have moved into northern Iraq. Is that not the case?
DB: Well, there are already about anywhere from 1,500 to 20,000 Turkish troops, depending on who you believe, in northern Iraq at this point. They have been there since around the 1990s. They set up this presence, which is not recognized officially by other nations. What they have threatened in the past few months, though, is to send thousands more troops in again, with heavy armor. Up until this point, they haven't been heavily armed. The purpose of the move would be to discourage the Kurds from setting up an independent state.
JC: Doug, have you seen any U.S. presence in Turkey?
DB: Yes, there was some U.S. presence here. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was in this area setting up supply depots. They were going to turn this area I'm in now -- I'm near the border, with Iraq -- the road out in front of my hotel here was going to be a main supply corridor for U.S. troops in northern Iraq. But the Turks decided to permit only U.S. overfly through Turkish territory, not to permit anything else, not to permit the basing of U.S. troops here, not to permit the re-supplying of U.S. troops through Turkish territory. It's a begrudging cooperation on the part of the Turkish government with the U.S. forces, but it's much, much less than Washington wanted.
JB: Let's talk a little bit this morning, Doug, about Turkey, because we've seen just howling winds and rain and sandstorms throughout Iraq. Are you guys getting any of that up where you are?
DB: No, up north, this is mountainous country. I'm at the banks of the Tigris River, which flows south several hundred miles into Baghdad. This land is a different kind of landscape, it's not desert, it's fertile plains. The weather has been cool, it's been cloudy and rainy and overcast and cool, but there isn't enough sand here to blow around so we haven't had a problem with that.
JC: All right. Doug Birch, thank you very much for joining us.
