news.am, Armenia
Jan 16 2010

Gul and Erdogan refused to host Israeli Defense Minister

13:30 / 01/16/2010January 17, 2010 Turkish President Abdullah Gul and
Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to see Israeli Defense Minister
Ehud Barak. Israeli official wished to meet with Erdogan, however the
latter renounced invoking his visit to UAE, Turkish Hurriyet daily
reports.

Barak also wanted to meet with Turkish President, however Gul also
refused him reasoning his workload in `Istanbul-European Culture
Capital’ project events. Gul informed that can receive Barak on
January 18 at the soonest, but the latter had to attend a conference
in Germany that day.

According to diplomatic sources, Gul and Erdogan do not wish to meet
with Ehud Barak for the recent Turkish-Israeli `Ambassador’s chair’
scandal.

Israeli Defense Minister will meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu and Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul as well as Chief of General
Staff Ilker Bashbug.