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ANKARA: Erdogan, Sarkozy To Discuss Middle East In Damascus

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  • ANKARA: Erdogan, Sarkozy To Discuss Middle East In Damascus

    ERDOGAN, SARKOZY TO DISCUSS MIDDLE EAST IN DAMASCUS

    Today's Zaman
    Sept 2 2008
    Turkey

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend a quadripartite
    summit in Damascus this week with French, Syrian and Qatari leaders
    convening to discuss Lebanon and the situation in the Middle East,
    Turkish officials said yesterday.

    Erdogan had earlier announced that he would visit Damascus on
    Sept. 4 for a working visit, coinciding with a landmark trip
    by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sept. 3-4 to the Syrian
    capital. News reports in the Arab media said Paris was the sponsor
    of the meeting. Emir of Qatar Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani
    and the president of host country Syria, Bashar Assad, will also
    attend the talks, which will review the situation in Lebanon and the
    Syrian-Israeli peace talks, currently mediated by Turkey, government
    spokesman Cemil Cicek confirmed after a Cabinet meeting yesterday.

    Sources said Assad, a personal friend of Erdogan, wanted the Turkish
    prime minister to be part of the talks because of his contributions
    to peace efforts in the Middle East. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan is
    expected to accompany Erdogan in Damascus. Syria and Israel announced
    in May that they were holding indirect peace talks mediated by
    Turkey. Despite having held several rounds of talks so far, a process
    of direct talks seems unlikely to start soon.

    Sarkozy's visit to Damascus is another step the French leader is
    taking toward normalizing ties with Syria and bringing Damascus back
    into the international fold by reversing a policy of exclusion that
    has in recent years alienated the country from the West. Sarkozy,
    whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union,
    was the first Western leader to reward the Syrians by welcoming Assad
    to the launch of a new Mediterranean Union in France and as a guest
    of honor at the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris last month.

    Qatar is the holder of the term presidency of the Gulf Cooperation
    Council, and Syria is the term president of the Arab League. Turkey
    is a member of none of the organizations but is preparing to sign a
    strategic dialogue document with the Gulf Cooperation Council today
    in Jeddah. The document will be signed during a visit by Babacan to
    Jeddah. Turkey has also been invited to attend Arab League meetings
    although it is not a member of the group, and diplomatic sources
    say efforts are under way to establish an institutional relationship
    between Ankara and the Arab League.

    Turkish diplomats say the invitation for Turkey to attend the talks
    confirm Ankara's standing as a bridge between the East and the West
    and added that Erdogan has been invited because Turkey is trusted by
    both sides. Though the main agenda is the Middle East, the Damascus
    talks are also expected to touch on the situation in the Caucasus
    after the brief Georgian-Russian war in August, following a Georgian
    offensive in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

    Erdogan is also expected to have bilateral talks with leaders
    attending the quadripartite summit, though no details were immediately
    available. Erdogan and Sarkozy rarely meet, and relations between
    Turkey and France are tense over staunch French opposition to Turkey's
    membership in the EU. Cicek said he hoped progress in Turkey's
    accession process would also be discussed in Damascus.

    Before flying to Jeddah, Babacan will host Russian Foreign Minister
    Sergey Lavrov today in Ä°stanbul for talks on the situation in the
    Caucasus. After attending a foreign ministerial meeting of the Gulf
    Cooperation Council in Jeddah, Babacan will head to Damascus to attend
    the quadripartite summit on the Middle East there.

    On Friday, Babacan will attend an informal meeting of the EU foreign
    ministers in France. His last stop before winding up the week will most
    probably be Armenia. Foreign Ministry officials remain tightlipped
    on whether President Abdullah Gul will accept an invitation from his
    Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan, to watch a World Cup qualifying
    game between national teams of the two countries on Sept. 6, but
    Erdogan suggested over the weekend that Gul will go to Armenia and
    that Babacan will be accompanying him.

    --Boundary_(ID_hVEcfT/pZHQA3BIlZ0UMYw)--
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