Damascus - President Bashar al-Assad and his wife held on Friday a short meeting with President of Turkey Abdullah Gul. Later, President al-Assad and President Gul held bilateral talks followed by an expanded meeting attended by members of the Syrian and Turkish official delegations.
In a press conference follwoing the meetings, President Bashar al-Assad described the Turkish President's visit to Syria as forming an important juncture in timing and content, providing the opportunity for discussing bilateral, regional and international issues.
President al-Assad added that Syrian-Turkish cooperation in major and important files has begun in January in 2003 when President Gul visited Syria for the first time and was then a Prime Minister and the visits and cooperation have continued, pointing out that this visit came in the same natural frame of the Syrian-Turkish cooperation.
President Bashar al-Assad pointed out that the visit of President Gul crowns the achievements made in the past six years, which were difficult years for the Middle East and weren't advantageous to many of the region's countries including Syria and Turkey, and so these years didn't help bolster these relations.
"Despite that, we succeeded in having distinguished relations, and this success didn't come from nothing, but was built on the historic relations between the Syrian and Turkish peoples." President al-Assad said, adding that Syrian-Turkish relations have been built over centuries of co-existence that produced single social and cultural concepts, affirming that these relations have continued and are based on truth, honesty and mutual interests.
President al-Assad underlined some main junctures that pushed Syrian-Turkish relations forward within the past years, saying "We all remember the preparation stage for the war on Iraq and afterwards of course the invasion of Iraq. We don't forget the popular Turkish stance which was expressed by the parliament and the government in refusing the use of Turkish lands and skies to attack and independent countries."
"Later, there were attempts at shaking Syria's stability and besieging it, and some had the desire to involve Turkey in order to weaken Syrian-Turkish relations, but Turkey's reaction was the opposite, with more coordination due to its awareness of the importance of relations among neighboring countries, particularly important countries that play an active and main role in various issues."
President al-Assad went on, saying "Today, we all live under the effect of the Gaza massacres... we didn't recover from them emotionally or intellectually, and I believe that many won't forget what happened after what they saw on television. However, people will not forget who stood with Gaza and who stood against Gaza, and so we will not forget the honorable stance of the Turkish government and people towards what happened in Gaza and their opposition to the aggression and support of the Palestinian people."
"I am speaking today from Syria, but I believe that if you go to an Arab or Islamic country, you'll hear the same talk and feel the same feelings. Strong relations led to cooperation in the issue of peace which many wondered how Turkey managed to do something that superpowers couldn't. The reason is trust building." President al-Assad said.
The President stressed that Turkey managed to play a role in indirect peace talks, which were relatively short, adding that Turkey's role was skilled, objective and fair, making Turkey a main player in the Middle East peace process, saying "This is of course in the future where there is a partner... Turkey's role is indispensable. All of this gave a special dimension to relations between Syria and Turkey... a very special dimension."
President al-Assad said he and President Gul discussed bilateral relations, which has made relatively good progress, with trade exchange in 2008 amounting to around USD 2 billion, adding that ambitions are much greater than that, saying "We must seek to double this trade exchange in strategic relations that achieve integration between the two countries which enjoy a distinguished and integrated strategic location."
The President noted that he and President Gul discussed the new international situation and the relative detente in it, discussing how to benefit from this detente in pushing the peace process in the region forward, saying "The Syrian stance is clear and public... the brothers in Turkey know the details of the stance," affirming that Syria is as committed to peace as it is committed to the occupied Syrian Golan.
President al-Assad said talks also discussed the issue of Iraq, saying "The Iraqi people proved on several occasions that they are actively working to keep Iraq unified... within this framework, we discussed how to support the Iraqi government in its efforts to achieve national reconciliation in Iraq until the withdrawal of the last occupying soldier from Iraq."
For his part, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said "We are happy to visit Syria because it's a neighboring country, and we give significant attention to developing relations with it in all fields... our relations with it are real and form a model to be followed by other countries."
President Gul said the Free Trade Zone Agreement has begun to bear fruit and that Turkey has businessmen that wish to make important investments in Syria, noting that relations and trade exchange are constantly improving.
President Gul said, "We agree with Syria on the necessity of protecting Iraq territorial integrity and easing the suffering of the Iraqi people."
He added that finding a strong stance in order to achieve peace in the region is a wanted issue.
The Turkish President underlined the importance of establishing a Palestinian independent state that lives in peace.
President Gul added "Regarding peace between Syria and Israel, we still believe in the land-for-peace principle and in achieving it to reach peace between the two countries. I thank Syria for the trust it showed to Turkey in general in that regard and everyone will see that policies will change and that peace can be achieved. There is faith in that, and the voices in the United States today which are calling for peace affirm this. Finding a strong position for achieving peace is required, and we in Turkey are ready to provide all that is necessary in that regard.
Regarding news reported last week on discomfort caused by Turkey's mediation in the indirect Syrian-Israeli talks and allegations that this was imposed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Syria accepted it, and whether this issue was discussed during the Presidents' meeting, President al-Assad affirmed that these stories are incorrect, saying "No side or person spoke to us about this issue. The issue of peace is linked to us as a side, and we decide who the mediator or sponsor is."
President al-Assad added "If there are sides that are upset by any successful role played by Turkey then this means that these sides don't want peace, but as I said no sides talked to us about this issue. As for the second part of the question, of course, President Gul and I discussed the peace issue extensively, in private bilateral talks and later in expanded talks."
"We cannot talk about a date and there is no partner. Now we are talking about peace as a strategic goal, as a principle, as bases through the Syrian-Turkish mutual experience from the indirect talks last year. We will work to resume dialogue regarding this issue to reach a vision, and once we reach a vision, details, a work plan for example, then we must discuss it with the other countries that we want to participate or that can play a role. It could be the United States, or maybe Turkey wants to discuss with friendly countries, because supporting the peace process is important to us and important to Turkey and important to the peace process.
"When we reach a certain vision, we wait for the partner, and when the partner arrives, we can discuss a date for beginning peace talks." President al-Assad concluded.
Regarding whether Syria exerted special efforts to resolve Palestinian differences, President al-Assad stressed that Palestinian reconciliation is the essence of any solution in the region, saying "without the unity of Palestinian stance there can be no peace on the Palestinian track, or a two-state solution, or restoration of land, or return of refugees."
"Without achieving peace on the Palestinian track, all the other tracks will remain imperfect even if peace agreements were signed on other tracks including the Syrian track, so we always affirm the necessity of comprehensive peace, or correlation of tracks, or coordination among tracks in order to achieve peace, not just sign a peace agreement because the peace agreement is the first step towards peace, not the final step as some believe. The steps that come after the first step are linked to the correlation or coordination of tracks. But like I said in the beginning, the most important thing to us as Arabs is the Palestinian track." President al-Assad said.
President al-Assad said, "We have played a role in this regard and we have tried many times... there are obstacles on the Palestinian level, but we always encourage... and during the meeting with President Abbas yesterday, the main point was the Palestinian reconciliation... the presence of Khaled Meshaal in Damascus doesn't mean that we substitute any Palestinian side in the reconciliation process... we adopt the policy of dialogue with all sides, and we are ready to play any role in this field to support any step in this regard"
Regarding cooperation and consultation among Damascus, Ankara and Tehran, President Gul stressed that Iran is a neighboring country, and that care is always given to the relations with it, saying "There is a problem regarding Iran with the international community, and we are exerting efforts to resolve this problem diplomatically, which is what we hope. The good relations between Syria and Iran make us happy, as they are independent countries that can establish relations and take them to the levels they want." He also noted that both Turkey and Syria have many neighboring countries and multiple relations, which consider every party, but are good overall.
In turn, President al-Assad said "I agree with President Gul, but I will add to the question... you spoke about coordination between Damascus and Ankara and between Damascus and Tehran and overlooked coordination between Ankara and Tehran. There is cooperation and communication between Iran and Turkey, which agrees with what President Gul said and what I said in the press conference with Iranian President Ahmadinajad, when I said that the relation isn't limited to the relations between Syria and Iran, but also any bilateral or multilateral relations that serve stability in the region, not just Syria, Turkey and Iran."
President al-Assad went on "Any relation of this kind is important, so, months before Arab reconciliation, around four months ago, there was a telephone call between me and President Gul. We discussed inter-Arab relations and Syria's relation with one of the Arab countries, because they believe that any problem with this relation will negatively affect Turkey's effectiveness, and the other way around; any good relation will serve the Turkish role."
"We feel the same... there is now awareness regarding this point. If some people in the world connect or try to draw axis, then we don't view relations as axis but rather natural relations, and I encourage them." President al-Assad concluded.
Regarding Turkey's honorable stances towards regional issues and the future of the Turkish role in both the Arab and Islamic worlds and in Europe and the West, President Gul affirmed that Turkey's actions are clear and that Turkey wants to be constructive and help solve problems, saying "we thank the ones who trust us, mainly President Bashar al-Assad who trusted us and showed us great confidence."
Preisdent Gul pointed out that Turkey isn't only interested in resolving the issue between Syria and Israel, the Middle East is full of problems and that Turkey wants to deal with these problems with good intent and constructively, stressing that Turkey doesn't feel like it must invest in this choice.
Regarding those who question Turkey's intentions and efforts in that regard, President Gul said "Turkey has always had good intent and has always been constructive, and we want to reach positive results." He pointed out that reaching a solution to the Middle East issues will benefit the entire region and achieve prosperity.
Regarding the Syrian efforts for Palestinian reconciliation, President Gul said "Of course, the Palestinian issue is one of the issues that we discussed extensively. Resolving the Palestinian dispute is important, and we can't consider two Palestinian states, so the Palestinians must unite."
President Gul noted that when Hamas won in Gaza, it approached Turkey, who opened up to them and gave them recommendations with good intent, adding "The last two years showed that we were right because it was important to participate... what happened last year happened, and now this dispute must be resolved... Egypt is exerting efforts and playing a role, and we support this role, hoping that this dispute will be resolved quickly and that Palestinian national unity is achieved, or else the most damaged will be the Palestinian cause, which is something we cannot accept and no-one in the region accepts it."
President Gul said, "We say that we are ready for peace and when Syria says it is ready to resume peace talks from the point it stopped at with the former government... than we, in turkey, ready too...
Israel has to prove that it is a partner... later, we think that these talks could resume and we have to realize peace."
Earlier, President al-Assad and his wife received President Gul and his wife upon their arrival at al-Shaab Palace.
An official reception ceremony was held for President Gul where the national anthems of Turkey and Syria were played, and the two Presidents reviewed guard of honor.
Later, President al-Assad and his wife held a dinner banquet in honor of President Gul and his wife in the presence of members of the two delegations.
By A.N.Idelbi/ H.sabbagh/Mazen Eyon
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2009
