NATO leaders met in Istanbul against the backdrop of violent street protests and doubts about the relevance of the organisation in the new environment created by Washington's "war on terror". Gareth Jenkins reports from Istanbul United States President George W Bush and other NATO members arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, this week for a two- day summit meeting. Discussion was centred on efforts by the US-led occupation coalition in Iraq to extricate itself from the quagmire of the deteriorating security situation there, as well as America's failure to stabilise post-Taliban Afghanistan. The summit triggered the largest policing operation in recent Turkish history, as anti-American protesters battled security forces in the streets around the conference centre in which the summit was being held amid well-substantiated reports that an Al-Qaeda affiliate was planning a major attack in the city. Any hopes NATO may have entertained that the summit meeting would be a celebration of the organisation's recent expansion from 19 to 26 members evaporated in the weeks leading up to the summit. It soon became clear that the meeting would be dominated by the violence in Iraq and questions regarding the relevance of NATO in the post-11 September world. On Monday, NATO ambassadors attending the Istanbul summit agreed in principle to train Iraqi security forces in post-occupation operations, yet even this agreement only followed several hours of wrangling. Discussions revealed continuing deep divisions within the alliance, particularly between members of the US-led alliance which toppled Saddam Hussein and others who were against the war on Iraq, such as France. In the end, compromise was reached whereby some members committed themselves to training Iraqi security forces outside Iraq while others agreed to do so inside the country. This aside, Monday's agenda was dominated by the unexpected announcement in Baghdad that the occupation forces were handing over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi administration two days ahead of the previously agreed deadline of 30 June. Speaking in Istanbul, Bush declared Monday a day of great hope for Iraqis. "The people have their country back," he said. The decision to hand over nominal authority to an interim government 48 hours ahead of schedule is seen in itself as an admission of failure. Although US officials hailed the move as a tactical coup designed to wrong-foot insurgents in Iraq, there was no escaping the fact that 14 months after the start of the US occupation insurgents are effectively setting the agenda. Apart from agreeing to provide a modicum of training for Iraqi security forces, there was no sign that NATO members agreed to assume a collective role in Iraq. Although 16 member states have contributed troops to the US-led coalition in Iraq, several others, particularly France and Germany, remained resolutely opposed to NATO assuming formal responsibilities, such as providing peace-keeping troops under NATO command. The other hot topic on the agenda at the Istanbul summit -- namely Afghanistan -- centred on Washington's apparent inability to establish peace and stability in the wake of military victory. It also highlighted the difficulty of persuading NATO members to commit troops even after reaching an agreement in principle. At the Istanbul summit, member states agreed to increase NATO's peace-keeping force in Afghanistan from 6,400 to around 10,000 and to extend its mandate from the capital Kabul to include four northern cities. The agreement followed months of behind-the-scenes wrangling, often over the commitment of only a few helicopters or transport aircraft, and has raised serious questions about NATO's ability to meet major challenges, such as the large-scale peace-keeping operations during the rebuilding of nations involved in Washington's "global war on terror". Nevertheless, despite its apparent weakness as an organisation, for most Turks NATO remains a potent symbol of the warmongering West. In the run-up to the NATO summit Turkish leftist extremists firebombed a string of Western targets in Istanbul, mostly foreign-owned banks. Last Thursday, a bomb carried by a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party Front (DHKP-C) exploded prematurely on a bus in central Istanbul. Even though the bomb was little larger than a hand grenade, the explosion within the confines of the bus killed four, including the bomber, and injured 21. But the protests were not limited to violent fringe groups. On Saturday, an estimated 50,000 members of leftist, rightist, religious and ultranationalist NGOs joined forces to stage a series of demonstrations across Istanbul opposing both the NATO summit and US policies in Iraq. Unlike many other protests at international gatherings in recent years, which attracted a travelling coalition of leftist and anti-globalisation groups, all of the demonstrators were locals. "I hate the US," said one member of a leftist group. "But I have to admit that they bring people together, whether it is the Sunnis and Shia in Iraq, or us and the rightists here in Turkey." On Monday, protests turned violent as demonstrators attempted to break the security cordon around the conference centre hosting the summit, overturning cars and setting up temporary barricades before being broken up by riot police using pepper spray and tear gas. The main security fear for the Turkish authorities has been an attack by an Al-Qaeda affiliate. For the last two months there have been persistent rumours that an Al- Qaeda trained cell had entered Turkey and was preparing to stage a spectacular attack, such as a suicide truck bombing similar to the ones in Istanbul in November last year which killed more than 60 and injured 700 more, although Turkish police had no idea where they were planning to attack or how. In the weeks leading up to the summit, Turkish police conducted background checks on nearly 300,000 people who live or work close to the summit venue, going so far as to ban the sale of radio-controlled model planes for fear they might be used to carry bombs. During the summit itself, Turkish authorities closed off all roads leading to the convention centre and nearby hotels where NATO leaders were staying. A string of frigates and gunboats patrolled the Bosphorus, while helicopters and NATO-supplied airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft patrolled the skies and Turkish F-16 fighter-bombers waited on runways at nearby airbases, ready to take off and shoot down stray aircraft. By Tuesday afternoon, the fears of an Al-Qaeda attack during the summit were beginning to subside and Turkish leaders were basking in international attention. But privately, Turkish security officials freely admitted that US policies, in relation to both in its "war on terrorism" and its support for Israel, would ensure a steady stream of new recruits for Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups. Whether an attack were to come sooner or later, by merely hosting a NATO summit Turkey had, they believed, moved itself up the Al- Qaeda list of target countries.
