Ahmet Necdet Sezer

[John Mage]

The crudest possible bribing/blackmailing of the Turkish government by
the Bush regime has been (astonishingly) carried out in full public
view. As of now both sides are saying that there is "almost" an
agreement. Which means of course that there is not an agreement.
Nonetheless all the media is saying there will be an agreement in the
next few days.

Longshot at screwing it up - the President of Turkey, Ahmet Necdet
Sezer. Don't know much about him, except he was a judge who had spoken
out criticizing the Turkish constitution for "restricting democratic
rights and freedoms." An account from a couple of years ago presents him
favorably as a rule of law guy and courageous.
<http://www.turkeyupdate.com/tu2000/decree.htm>

Wednesday last week, according to the semi-official spookscum of "Radio
Free Europe" he said:
"We have been saying from the beginning that the presence of foreign
soldiers in Turkey could be allowed in circumstances considered
legitimate by international law. And in order to have a situation deemed
legitimate under international law, we believe there should be a new
Security Council resolution other than Resolution 1441."
<http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/02/18022003155448.asp>

He has the power to veto a decision to permit the US troopers to land in
Turkey. It would make him the most popular Turk since Mustafa Kemal, but
probably a dead one pretty quickly. Anyway, it will be interesting to
see if his name turns up in the next few days.

john mage