Turkey Hailed as Peace Mediator

The media last week praised Turkey for its role in pursuing peace in the region following a recent three-day visit to Syria by Turkish president Abdullah Gul to Damascus.



Gul traveled to the country on May 15 for talks on bilateral ties, as well as on Ankara’s role in contributing to the Middle East peace process.



Asaad Aboud, the editor-in-chief of the official newspaper Al-Thawra, asserted in a May 17 editorial that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad believed Ankara was a strong mediator for peace with Israel.



Indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel, meditated by Turkey, were suspended in December last year after Israel launched air strikes against the Gaza Strip.



Aboud said that Washington should follow the Turkish model in brokering peace, and slammed it for being absent from recent peace talks with Israel.



He said that the US was partially responsible over the years for lost opportunities for reaching peace in the region.



A May 19 opinion piece in the pro-government daily Al-Watan said that the strong ties between Turkey and Syria were an example of how international relations should be. It noted that the two countries were able to build a close alliance in just few years after a long period of disagreements.



The article’s author Malik al-Natour suggested that other countries like Iran and Iraq should join Syria and Turkey to create a strategic alliance among Islamic countries which would be capable of forcing Israel to accept a “fair” peace in the region.



In another opinion piece in Al-Watan, Ghassan Ramadan applauded Syrian-Turkish cooperation on their stance towards Iraq and the Palestinian territories.



Ramadan noted that a coalition between Arab states, Iran and Turkey was essential to tackle western dominance over the region and to curb Israel’s power.