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Turkish Chief of General Staff Hilmi Ozkok said Monday that detention of Turkish soldiers in Iraq by US forces created the biggest crisis of confidence between the two countries' armed forces, reported the Anatolian News Agency.
General Ozkok, who received outgoing US Ambassador to Turkey Robert Pearson, noted that the development had also created a crisis in the relations of the two sides.
"I wished that it had not occurred that way," he said.
Ozkok recalled that some 100 US soldiers, joined by local people from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, surrounded the Turkish special force bureau in the northern Iraqi city of Suleymaniyah on Friday and attempted to enter the bureau by force.
Personnel in the bureau were detained "in an incomprehensible way" after the US force entered the bureau, Ozkok said.
Ozkok noted that the Turkish military personnel were firstly taken to Kirkuk and then to Baghdad.
Ozkok stated that he did not think that it was a US or US armed forces policy, saying "I would like to state that I have big difficulty in evaluating it as only a local incident."
Turkey's national honor and Turkish armed forces' honor were also important, Ozkok said, adding that "I hope balance of our national honor will be ensured in the best way."
Eleven Turkish soldiers were detained in northern Iraq and taken to Baghdad by US forces on Friday, and released on Sunday night after two-day detention by US forces.
Their releasing came after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a telephone call with US Vice President Dick Cheney earlier Sunday and another call between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
Turkish media reported the soldiers were detained on suspicion that "certain Turks were planning to commit an attack on the governor of Kirkuk," in northern Iraq.
Turkish soldiers have been in the region to prevent infiltration of members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting a separatist war for autonomy in eastern and southeastern Turkey since 1984.
(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2003)
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