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The Turkish question
(August 1, 2001, cairolive.com)
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Gim was in Cairo on Monday for separate talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa. Turkey's strategic relationship with Israel was, of course, of primary concern to audiences in Cairo, both public and official.
Gim, a former journalist, spent much of his time at the press conferences following his two meetings attempting to explain to reporters that Turkey's military partnership with the Israelis did not represent a threat to any of the countries of the region. He also claimed that Turkey does not use its friendships as bargaining chips, denying that his country's relationship with Israel was ever used as a card against Syria.
Reporters were unconvinced and grilled Gim about these, and other issues. Turkish-Israeli military cooperation began in 1996, but is especially in the spotlight now because of both the increasingly volatile ten-month old Al-Aqsa intifada, and the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be visiting Turkey later this week.
Both Maher and Moussa said after the meetings that when told of Arab feelings regarding Turkish-Israeli contacts, Gim argued that his country uses its relationship with Israel to help convince Israel into taking a more positive stance towards the peace process. On the issue of sending international observers into the conflict to help monitor who is breaking the US-brokered cease-fire, Gim said Turkey was still trying to garner support for its previously mooted proposal to expand the already existing monitoring force and mechanism in Khalil (Hebron).
Gim argued that his country's relationship with Israel had been greatly exaggerated by loud voices in the Israeli press, with the goal of alienating Turkey from the Arabs. He said some Arab states like to play the same game. Israeli military exercises in Konya, Turkey, according to Gim, were more of a commercial arrangement. The Turkish foreign minister also suggested that Egypt, as well as other Arab countries, were welcome to rent out these facilities for their training exercises as well. That possibility seemed slim considering such offers had been rejected in the past.
While Gim said that he thought Turkey had overcome the troublesome issues stemming from its relations with both Israel and the Arab world, it was clear, throughout his visit, that there were still plenty of unanswered questions about the future ramifications and dynamics of those relations for the region as a whole.
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