Al-Assad to pay a historic visit to Turkey next week

A Turkish diplomatic source in Damascus said that the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, will next week pay a historical visit to Turkey, aiming at perpetuating closeness between the two countries, who close the have a war in 1998.

During his visit ,which will start on January 6th and continues for three days, the Syrian President will hold talks in Ankara with the Turkish leaders, especially with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and will sign agreements on bilateral cooperation. Then President al-Assad will head for Istanbul, the economic center of Turkey, to meet with businessmen there.

Syria and Turkey were about to have a war in 1998, when Ankara threatened to resort to force if Syria continues to give shelter to Abdullah Oclan, leader of the Kurdistan Labour party. Relations have been gradually improving after the expulsion of Ocalan. Since then, Damascus and Ankara resumed relations despite their differences over the water of the Euphrates, and this was by the exchange of visits including the visit made by the Syrian prime minister to Turkey in June, 2003. That was the first visit of a Syrian prime minister to Turkey in 17 years.