Al-Assad starts historic visit to Ankara today
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad starts today, Tuesday, a historical visit to Turkey which will last for three days. The first by A Syrian President since Syria's independence in 1946.
A Turkish diplomat said that president al-Assad and his Turkish counterpart will discuss means of developing relations between the two countries. Relations which have improved after a long phase of tension.
The Syrian daily al-Baath, mouthpiece of the ruling party in Syria, welcomed in its Sunday's issue the Syrian- Turkish summit saying that "the common interests and promising prospects will push the two countries forward to build a genuine partnership based on the reality of neighborhood and reciprocated interests."
At the economic level, two agreements will be signed during the visit to encourage investment in preparation for the free exchange agreement between Syria and Turkey, after the volume of trade exchange between the two countries increased to one billion dollars in 2003.
During his official visit, President al-Assad will head to Istanbul to attend a forum on tourism between the two countries.
At the international level, the two presidents will evaluate developments in the Middle East, especially regarding the development of conditions in Iraq.
In this regard, President al-Assad preceded his visit to Ankara with statements in which he stressed his country's opposition for the establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq.
In a statement to the Turkish CNN TV, which broadcast in the Turkish language yesterday, President al-Assad said that Syria opposes all things that violate the unity of the Iraqi territories, noting that dismembering Iraq will affect all its neighboring states, and will stabilize the region.
However, despite talks made by the two countries on attaining progress in the relations, there are still points of differences including a Syrian demand of finalizing a "permanent" agreement on "more just" shared water, but these issues will be raised more expectedly during the visit.
Syria and Turkey were about to have confrontation in a war in 1998, when Ankara threatened to resort to force if Damascus continues to give shelter to the leader of the Kurdistani Labor Party, Abdullah Ocalan. Relations have gradually improved after the expulsion of Ocalan.
Since then, Damascus and Ankara, despite their differences over the Euphrates river water, resumed relations by exchanging visits including a visit held by the former Syrian prime minister to Turkey in July 2003. It was the first for a Syria prime minister since 17 years.
