The daily said the decision to provide the aid was initially made during the tenure of then-Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel starting in 1992 and that it had amounted to $65 million by 2000. The daily stressed this aid was at its highest during the coalition government. Turkey was cooperating at the time with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), as part of its state policy of fighting against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
During consecutive governments in the 1990s, millions of dollars in aid was sent to northern Iraq. According to the detailed report, more than $12 million of a total $65 million in aid was sent in cash to pay salaries of peshmerga fighters. Turkey had sent weaponry, ammunition, food and clothing worth $53.4 million in seven years by 1999.
A total of 25,652 AK-47s, 350 “bixi” guns and 75 assassination “Kanas” guns were sent to the region.
The Sabah daily earlier reported that the Turkish coalition government met with Talabani and Barzani to discuss aid for their peshmerga troops. These reports appeared in several media outlets this week after Bahçeli assailed the government on secretly meeting with the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, and showing courtesy to Iraqi Kurdish leaders.
