TURKEY: Turkey's parliament yesterday approved the deployment of hundreds of troops to join a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but thousands of protesters took to the streets to oppose the mission.
Many in the Muslim but secular country are concerned the UN force, due to enforce an Israel-Hizbullah truce, would mainly serve Israeli and US interests and that troops may have to fire at fellow Muslims. The left was also vehemently opposed.
"We will not become Israeli soldiers" and "Murderer USA get out of the Middle East", chanted leftists protesting in a street near parliament. Several demonstrators were detained by police.
The parliamentary debate was delayed by several hours by quarrelling between legislators over a time limit for speeches and later by difficulties in using the electronic voting system. But there was not the scale of public opposition seen in 2003 when legislators rejected a government plan to allow US forces to use Turkey as a staging post to invade Iraq. That decision led to a cooling in US-Turkish relations.
Lebanon, the US and Israel want Nato-member Turkey to contribute troops as they see soldiers from Muslim countries improving the UN force's image in the region. Opposition parties accused the government of being a US and Israeli stooge.
Turkey's close ties with Lebanon and Iraq as well as Israel make it unique in the region, and prime minister Tayyip Erdogan is keen to boost his country's role as a powerbroker.