Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) to discuss realization of the cease-fire plan proposed by Kofi Annan, special representative of the UN and the Arab League. Ankara supports the plan, ITAR-TASS reports.
The plan urges Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to withdraw tanks from Syrian cities. Turkey and Saudi Arabia want resignation of al-Assad.
Togrul Ismail, an assistant professor of the Subdepartment for International Relations of the University for Economy and Technologies TOBB (Ankara) told Vestnik Kavkaza that Turkey and Syria have tensions since 1998 (joint session in Adan, visit of Turkish President Ahmet Sezer for funeral of Hafez Assad in Syria, reforms of Bashar al-Assad, arrival of Ak Party in Turkey).
Turkey insisted on peaceful settlement of peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis. It wanted to pressurize al-Assad without escalating the crisis. Wars in Iraq and the Iranian crisis caused repercussions for the region.
Turkey is the most democratic state in the region and remains a secular state, increasing pressure on the Syrian president with escalation of violence. The expert says that the world society should support Turkey and resolve all conflicts together, with assistance of the US, Russia and China.
Ismail reminded that Turkey has mediated in the Israeli-Syrian talks. Even Israel’s attack on Gaza was not a major blow to relations with Turkey.
