Al-Assad to Ankara in March; Gul in Cairo, tomorrow in Amman to spare the region war
Regional-Turkey, Politics, 1/6/2003

Turkish prime minister Abdullah Gul stressed yesterday following his meeting with the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Sharm Esh Sheik resort in Egypt, his second leg in his tour on the region, his rejection for "seeing a divided Iraq," and called on all sides concerned "to work strongly to avoid the war," on which he said will be "of a very heavy price.

This came following a fruitful visit Gul had made to Damascus. A visit succeeded in expanding prospects of cooperation and concerning the level of visits between the two countries, as it was announced that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in March will visit Turkey, while the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara will visit Ankara in the mid of this January.

In a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Atef Ebeid, Gul said "the unity of Iraq is a very important matter that we consider very carefully, We do not want a divided Iraq." He expressed hope over "the cooperation of the Iraqi government in order to prove that Iraq is free from weapons is correct."

Prior to the meeting, when asked about reports on a possible Egyptian-Turkish-Saudi coordination on the Iraqi crisis, Maher asserted Egypt's interest in exchanging views on the matter with all parties concerned, adding that coordination between the three countries was already under way. Turkey has expressed support for a peaceful solution to the Iraqi problem and Ankara has said it would not participate in any military operations, Maher said in response to a question on the Turkish stance vis-a-vis the Iraqi crisis.

Gul who will head for Jordan today and will visit Saudi Arabia on January 11, said replying to a question concerning a statement by the Turkish foreign minister Yashar Yakish in which he said that exiling "the Iraqi President can solve the Iraqi problem" and on whether Turkey accepts to host him, "these statements are misunderstood. However we have to think of alternatives and possibilities because war is not a good thing." He continued replying a question on his personal feeling concerning the possibility of exiling the Iraqi President "this is not our project. In fact, there should be other means excluding exiling in order to halt the war." He said "we have to seek best means to prevent this war." He explained replying to another question on the recent military maneuvers in which Turkey took part with Israel and the USA that "we did not tackle with this issue. We have talked about bilateral relations and the crisis the region is facing and means of preventing war because it will be of a very high price."

Gul stressed that a Turkish minister will head for Baghdad on Monday but he stressed that "he is not our envoy, he is a deputy minister going to Iraq to discuss the conditions and hold peace talks." He concluded by saying "we should do whatever is possible, not by Turkey alone, rather everyone in the region, including Iraq in order to spare the war."

Previous Stories:
  Ghoule starts in Syria an Arab tour; Turkish trade delegation to Iraq   (1/3/2003)
  Milliyet: Ghoule to visit Syria. Saudi Arabia and Egypt   (12/21/2002)
  Arab-Turkish relations to further develop under AK government   (12/3/2002)
  Sezer supports Mubarak's call for int'l conference on terrorism   (9/29/2001)
  Mubarak confers with Turkish president   (2/26/2001)

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