Turkey steps in to tackle 'bumps' in Iraq-Syria relations

ISTANBUL // In a step that goes far beyond its immediate aim to ease recent tensions between Iraq and Syria, Turkey yesterday intensified efforts to engage its two southern neighbours in a system of ever closer ties involving regular high-level contacts and even joint cabinet meetings. "We hope to broaden our relations with Iraq and Syria on the highest level and tackle any bumps in the road that may occur," Turkish media quoted Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, as saying. Mr Davutoglu met his counterparts from Iraq and Syria, Hoshyar Zebari and Walid Muallim, respectively, in Istanbul yesterday. The Arab League's secretary general, Amr Moussa, also attended the talks.

The meeting was called by Turkey in an effort to calm waters between Iraq and Syria after their row following a series of bomb blasts in Baghdad on August 19, which killed 95 people and wounded 600 at the finance and foreign ministries in the Iraqi capital. Iraq has said it had evidence showing that the attacks were orchestrated by militants in Syria, an accusation Damascus has denied. Both countries recalled their diplomats from the other's capital.

In opening remarks at the meeting, Mr Davutoglu hailed "the determination displayed [by the parties] to co-operate in uncovering all facts behind these barbarian attacks against the Iraqi government and people". He said preparatory talks between Iraqi and Syrian officials in Ankara on Tuesday were "very successful" and the two sides had agreed to "mutually improve security mechanisms" to find those responsible for the August 19 carnage.

Mr Davutoglu has been trying for weeks to solve the crisis. Before yesterday's meeting, Turkish media had reported he was going to suggest a mechanism to improve border security that would involve close co-operation of intelligence agencies from the three countries. For Turkey, a country that regards itself as a potential regional leader, the mediation efforts have several dimensions, both short-term and long-term.

Turkey needs stable relations between Iraq and Syria and the help of both countries to boost its own efforts to end a 25-year-old rebellion by Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The rebels have their headquarters in the mountains of northern Iraq and in the past enjoyed support from Syria. The PKK's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was allowed to reside in Damascus until he had to leave Syria under strong Turkish pressure in late 1998. He was captured several months later and has been serving a life sentence in Turkey since then.

"If tensions between [Syria and Iraq] decrease, possibilities for a regional co-operation against the PKK increase," the columnist Murat Yetkin wrote in the Radikal newspaper. Bashar Assad, Syria's president, said earlier in the week that Damascus was willing to take back Syrian members of the PKK once the militants had been disarmed. Ankara's mediation efforts are also connected to more strategic aims. Apart from hosting the talks with Mr Zebari and Mr Muallim, Mr Davutoglu and several other Turkish cabinet ministers met their Iraqi counterparts for the start of a two-day session of the so-called High-Level Strategic Co-operation Council of the two countries, a body that was set up last year. It was the first meeting of the council on a ministerial level.

The council has the task of strengthening ties between the two countries with regular meetings of government ministers and joint projects. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, is scheduled to travel to Baghdad next month to attend the first joint cabinet meeting of the two countries, also in the framework of the council, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. With the Turkish-Iraqi council up and running, Ankara is applying the same model to its relations with Syria. After talks with Mr Muallim on Wednesday, Mr Davutoglu said Turkey had reached an agreement with Syria for a co-operation council between Ankara and Damascus. The two countries also agreed to lift visa requirements for their citizens.

Some observers see Turkey's efforts to increase co-operation with its two southern neighbours as signs of a regional bloc in the making. "A Mideast Union is being created," the columnist Zeynep Gurcanli wrote in yesterday's online edition of the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. The European Union had been created in the same way, she wrote, referring to the European Coal and Steel Community that was founded in 1951 as an instrument to prevent future wars between Germany and France.

tseibert@thenational.ae