Gul: "We have no intention of invading Iraq"

Turkey has no intention of invading Iraq, as our only goal is to eliminate a threat to our country, said President Abdullah Gul yesterday. "No country lets an illegal armed power in its territory or near its border," Gul told a group of radio and TV reporters. "If the state allowed such an illegal force, then we can't call it a state." He added, "Every fallen soldier we see hurts us deeply. But we would have seen even more if the ground operation (into northern Iraq) had been launched at a later date. Failure to act in a timely fashion leads to more casualties." Stating that Turkey will show its determined to the very end, Gul said that their intention is very clear. When asked whether he had deliberately chosen last Friday, the day the ground operation was made public, to sign controversial constitutional changes to end the university headscarf ban, Gul said the operation had not been a factor in his timing for approving the changes.