SYRIA READY TO HELP ADVANCE ANKARA-YEREVAN NEGOTIATIONS

Today’s Zaman
June 19 2009
Turkey

While welcoming the rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey, Syria’s
President Bashar al-Assad offered to mediate more fence-mending
negotiations between the two neighbors during an official visit to
Yerevan on Wednesday, Armenian media reported.

"We in Syria have received with great satisfaction the steps that are
aimed at normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations," al-Assad was quoted
as saying by English-language online news portal at a
joint press conference following talks with his Armenian counterpart,
Serzh Sarksyan. "I told the president of Armenia that we are ready
to help move those relations forward."

Al-Assad also argued that Syria is in a position to do that because
of its "close relationships" with both Armenia and Turkey.

Sarksyan did not comment on al-Assad’s offer during their joint news
conference but instead praised the current state of Syrian-Armenian
ties, stressing the need to boost bilateral economic cooperation. "Our
friendship must be held up as a good example to both our peoples and
others," Sarksyan was quoted as saying.

Until the last decade, Syria and Turkey were also estranged neighbors
like Armenia and Turkey. In the fall of 1998, the two countries came to
the brink of war over the presence in Syria of the now-jailed leader
of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan. At
the time, Turkish troops marshaled along the border with Syria, with
Ankara demanding that Damascus cease its support for the PKK and hand
over Ocalan.

Syrian President Hafez al-Assad forced Ocalan to leave, resulting in
his subsequent capture by Turkish Special Forces in Kenya, and PKK
training camps in Syria and Lebanon were closed down. The PKK is listed
as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US as well as by Turkey.

Syrian-Turkish trade relations have been steadily improving since 2001,
and the two countries’ trade balance rose from $150 million in 2003
to $1 billion in 2007.