Turkey Warns of Lengthy War Against Iraq

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's prime minister cautioned on Sunday that the United States risked being involved in a lengthy war in Iraq if it goes ahead with possible plans for a military action to topple Saddam Hussein.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, in an interview on state-run television a week after a top U.S. Defense Department official lobbied Turkey for support for a possible U.S. action against Iraq, said Washington appeared determined to topple the regime in Iraq.

Ecevit said he did not know when the action might occur or what shape it might take.

"Iraq is ... so developed technologically and economically despite the embargo, that it cannot be compared to Afghanistan or Vietnam," Ecevit said. "It will not be possible for the [United States] to get out of there easily."

He said the United States should consider measures other than a military action in Iraq, but did not elaborate.

"There are other measures to deter the Iraqi regime of being a threat to the region," he said.

Paul Wolfowitz, the Pentagon's No. 2 official, met with Turkish government and military leaders earlier last week to discuss U.S. plans to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Turkish leaders, grappling with political uncertain and looming early elections, are reluctant to back any U.S. action they fear could hamper the country's economic development and lead to the creation of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq.

Turkey has long complained that it has lost some dlrs 40 billion since the 1990 Gulf crisis, mainly due to the loss of trade with neighboring Iraq.

Turkish officials have also repeatedly said they fear that a war in Iraq would encourage Kurds in northern Iraq to create an independent state, which could in turn, encourage Turkey's own Kurds to do the same. Kurdish rebels fought Turkish troops for autonomy for 15 years, in a struggle that led to some 37,000 deaths.

"There is a de facto Kurdish state in northern Iraq, we cannot allow this go any further," Ecevit said.

"President Bush is a friend of Turkey. We do not want to hurt his feelings, but it is our duty to let them know our concerns," he added.

Turkish backing is seen as crucial to any action against Iraq. The country was a launching pad for U.S. strikes against Iraq during the Gulf War and still hosts some 50 U.S. warplanes enforcing a no-fly zone over northern Iraq.

Turkey is also in desperate need of foreign loans to recover from a deep financial crisis and many believe that the country has little choice but to agree to U.S. action.

Syria, another of Iraq's neighbors, also expressed its objection to U.S. action Sunday through its state-run media.

"The worsening plight of Iraq's vulnerable children and powerless adults virtually demands an effective international intervention to stop the deterioration of the situation, and perhaps to stop the slide to war," the English-language Syria Times newspaper said in an editorial.

Relations between Syria and Iraq deteriorated over Syria's backing of Iran against Iraq in their eight-year war in the 1980s. Relations worsened when Syria joined a U.S.-led Gulf War alliance. A thaw began in 1997 when Syria, strapped for cash, approached Iraq for contracts under its UN oil-for-food deal.