Today the ultimate authority in Turkey met - the Turkish National Security Council (army bosses + leading politicians). Their decision was not made public. Instead the leading figure of the party with a majority in the Parliament gave a press conference reported at the URL below. Of course a decision not to permit the U.S. to land would be an act of bravery almost beyond belief, and it should definitely not be expected (it's even a waste of time to dream about it - but it's a way I've been wasting time).
Nonetheless, at least formally, this obscure even bizarre account of what he said doesn't definitively rule it out. Secrecy is most easily explainable as a way of protecting politicians from the voters finding out which MPs voted to let the U.S. forces into Turkey - 'cause no-one denies that over 90% of the Turks are against it. OTOH it's at least arguable that the least damage would be done if the decision not to let the U.S. troops land were done as quietly as possible. The inbalance in the plausibility of these two explanations is a good example of why hopes for a brave, honorable and democratic decision for peace by the rulers of Turkey are almost certainly misplaced. Though I can't resist the fantasy of President Sezer doing the right thing...
See, if you have a moment, if you can make anything more of this report.
<http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=9305>
john mage