Erdogan's interview on visit and relations with Syria
Syria-Turkey, Politics, 12/21/2004

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that Turkish and Syrian peoples are bound by common historical, cultural and social ties, describing President Bashar al-Assad's visit to Turkey early this year as historical, fruitful and an indicator that bilateral relations between the two countries are in persistent progress.

Erdogan, in an interview with the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA published on Monday on the eve of his visit to Syria, said President al-Assad's visit and the subsequent exchanged visits by officials from both countries had effectively helped develop the bilateral relations in all fields and greatly advanced them forward.

He added that pushing the bilateral relations between Turkey and Syria would no doubt positively reflect on the two peoples and countries. "This signals great desire on the part of both sides to further develop these relations and take positive steps in this regard," he added.

"The visit I will pay to Syria after tomorrow aims at enhancing this concept, so I will hold talks on means of boosting existing developments in these relations, particularly in the political and economic fields. These talks will concentrate on the bilateral relations and how to advance them in all fields, and in this framework, I would like to focus particularly on signing the free trade zone agreement which had been signed in initials early this year," the Turkish Premier said.

He pointed out that this agreement would help further push economic and trade relations between the two countries, and serves as a sound ground for going ahead with in developing these ties.

The Turkish Premier added that during his talks in Syria there will be focus on consultations on regional and international issues and means of boosting cooperation between the two countries in these fields.

On Iraq, Erdogan said Turkey and Syria are two important countries in the region, and naturally the developments of the situations in Iraq or the Palestinian territories affect them. "These two issues are not only part of the regional problems but also of priority on the international community's agenda ... it is natural that Turkey and Syria, the two important countries, cooperate in the region to work together to reach solutions to these two problems," he added.

He said since the beginning Syria had supported the idea of convening a meeting of Iraq's neighboring countries, and this participation had influential effect. "Syria and Turkey share the same stance ... and so the situations in Iraq and the Palestinian territories would be among the key issues which would be discussed," he added.

He pointed out that a successful elections of a President to the Palestinian Authority and members of the Palestinian National Council would help and push ahead the negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel and also help revive the Roadmap.

The Turkish premier said that "it is necessary to revive the Syrian and Lebanese tracks to go in the same framework ... and on this occasion we express high appreciation of the statements by His Excellency president Bashar al-Assad on Syria's readiness to give a momentum to the peace process in the Middle East because Syria is one of the significant countries with which no peace could be established in the region ... there is no doubt that Syria will continue to be sincerely helpful in the peace process."

He added that the Turkish and Syrian peoples are brothers and bound by joint historical, cultural, religious and social ties, and "to strengthen these ties there must be exchanged visits between the brothers and relatives in Turkey and Syria ... and on this occasion we express high appreciation for the recent increase in the number such visits ... and we call for boosting extensive cooperation between Turkish and Syrian businessmen ... and that's why a great number of Turkish businessmen are going to accompany me in my visit to Syria." Erdogan considered that opening a Syrian General Consulate in the Turkish city of Gazientep would be very helpful in this regard.

Previous Stories:
  Erdogan to pay an official visit to Syria   (12/20/2004)
  Syria - Turkey Free Trade Zone to be signed   (12/16/2004)
  Turkish minister of industry and trade meets Syrian officials concerned   (10/25/2004)
  Premier receives Istanbul stock market chairman   (5/17/2004)

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