Turkey sending peacekeeping troops to Lebanon
Published September 17th, 2006 in Turkey, Politics Tags: Israel, Lebanon, politics, turkey, UN, United Nations.Turkish Parliement voted to send troops to southern Lebanon for the UN peacekeeping force despite strong public opposition. Ugur Akinci from “Turkish Torque” reports the public sentiment on the subject and provides statistics on past international missions of the Turkish army:
According to the polls released by the largest media outlets in Turkey, the majority of the public voted against sending troops:
Hürriyet: 76.8% No, 23.2% Yes
Milliyet: 84.0% No, 16.0% Yes
Sabah: 69.7% No, 28.0% Yes
NTV: 74.6% No, 25.4% Yes
According to the Turkish Torque, this is the 14th time Turkish troops will be sent abroad for an international mission and right now 1,045 Turkish troops are serving in various NATO and UN multinational missions in Afghanistan (Kabil), Bosnia. Kosova and Lithuania. A total of 63,686 troops served abroad in such peace-keeping missions so far.
And what a shrewd move the vote has been. It is a victory for the government to vote with such an ovewhelming majority to send troops to Lebanon, especially considering the domestic opposition you mention. Sometimes tough decisions need to made, and this was one of them. It was the right decision too.