Mediation reflects Turkey’s growing Middle East role

Israel and Syria reveal indirect peace talks to be held in Istanbul

A sign is seen at an observation point on Mount Bental in the Golan Heights, yesterday. Israel and Syria said they had launched indirect peace talks.

ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey’s mediation in indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, which the three countries announced yesterday, reflects Ankara’s growing role in Middle East affairs and its claim to being a regional power, analysts said.

Turkey’s mediation follows its increased efforts in recent years to have a say in the Middle East where its secular system, traditionally pro-Western slant and close ties with Israel have long made it the black sheep of the Islamic fold.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government, while pursuing Turkey’s bid to join the EU, has made strides in mending fences with one-time foes such as Syria and Iran and boosted cooperation with Arab countries since it came to power in 2002. “Turkey has a unique role as a country that has earned the trust of both Israel and Syria,” foreign policy commentator Sami Kohen said. The mediation bid “is a very important development regarding Turkey’s role and credibility in the region,” he said.

Relations with Syria hit an all-time low in 1998, when Turkey threatened military action if Damascus continued to shelter Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. The threat of war eased when Syria expelled Ocalan from his safe haven in Damascus and agreed to cooperate with Turkey on security issues, paving the way for a spectacular improvement in bilateral ties and frequent exchanges of visits.

Turkey’s ties with Israel have flourished for years: It was the first Muslim-majority country to recognize the Jewish state in 1949, and in 1996 the two signed a military cooperation deal that drew the ire of Iran and the Arab world. But Turkish leaders have often criticized the Jewish state for its heavy-handed policies against the Palestinians and in 2004, Erdogan sparked a period of chill when he condemned a deadly Israeli raid on the Rafah refugee camp as “state terror.” Another spat came in February 2006 when Turkey hosted a delegation led by exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal after the Islamists’ election victory.

Huseyin Bagci, a professor of international relations at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University, suggested that Turkey’s mediation between Israel and Syria was a well-timed effort at a moment when it is in both countries’ interest to resolve their conflict. “It is a timely and realistic move to make use of Turkey’s role as a friend of both Israel and the US and its improving ties with Arab countries, notably Syria,” he said. However, “what matters most here is not Turkey but the fact that both Israel and Syria have a converging interest” in engaging negotiations, Bagci told AFP.