Turkey will not allow anyone to ruin Syria deal

By Nazli Yuzbasioglu and Serife Cetin

ANKARA

Ankara will not allow anyone to overshadow the efforts deployed to reach a permanent solution in Syria following the Astana peace talks, a Turkish Foreign Ministry Official said Thursday.

During a routine press briefing in Ankara, the ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said the Astana peace talks between fighting groups in Syria, earlier this week, had ended successfully.

“The meeting in Astana was not an alternative of a UN-brokered Geneva peace talk, rather a complementary one,” he said.

At the meeting in the Kazakh capital, Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed on establishing a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with a cease-fire in Syria.

The Astana talks, which focused on extending the cease-fire that came into effect in Syria on Dec. 30, 2016, included representatives of the regime, armed opposition groups, Russia, Turkey, Iran as well as UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura and U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, George Krol.

Muftuoglu stated the Syria peace negotiations were a continuous process, and there could be “several meetings, discussions, at both technical and political levels”.

He told journalists there could be expert-level meetings before the upcoming Geneva meeting scheduled for Feb. 8.

The spokesman added that Turkey would be vigilant in ensuring the success of the process, at any cost and against any who would want to jeopardize it. He called on the other guarantor states to show a similar stance.

Asked about Turkey’s view on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s role, Muftuoglu replied that the head of a regime that caused the death of around 600,000 of his own people should not have not any place in the country’s future.

- Merkel to visit Turkey on Feb. 2

Muftuoglu also announced that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would visit Turkey on Feb. 2. This comes after tensions have arisen as of late between Ankara and Berlin.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman explained that Ankara has expressed displeasure over the German Justice Ministry’s invitation of fugitive suspect Can Dundar to one of its receptions.

“We conveyed our uneasiness to authorities in Berlin over the invitation of Can Dundar,” he said.

Dundar, former editor-in-chief of Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, is wanted in Turkey for disclosing highly confidential state documents.

Ankara sees the move by the German ministry as a provocation ahead of the German leader’s trip to Turkey, he added.

“Turkey and Germany are experiencing strong relations,” he noted however.

Lastly, Muftuoglu discussed Turkish-Israeli relations saying both countries' Foreign Ministry officials, including undersecretaries and general secretaries, would meet in the coming days.

“Israel will host a tourism fair on Feb. 7-8. This is an important event for developing our relations with Israel. There was a probability that our tourism minster could join the fair. But it had not been finalized yet,” he said.

If the minister visits Israel he will also visit Palestine, as Turkish officials traditionally do, added Muftuoglu.

Turkey and Israel renewed ties in June 2016 following a six-year split over the attack on the Mavi Marmara humanitarian aid ship in May 2010, when Israeli commandos killed 10 Turkish activists on the Gaza-bound vessel.