ANKARA, 30 July 2003 — Syrian Prime Minister Mustapha Miro held talks with Turkish officials here yesterday over the future of Iraq against a background of unease over the United States occupation of the country. Miro’s two-day visit — the first by a Syrian prime minister since 1986 — was taking place amid US warnings to NATO ally Turkey to limit its cooperation with Syria, which is on Washington’s list of countries supporting terrorism.
Miro had a working lunch with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul during which the two sides asserted their common position that Iraq’s territorial integrity should be preserved in the wake of the downfall of Saddam Hussein, diplomatic sources told Anatolia news agency. Turkey’s often tense relations with Syria as well as Iran have warmed in the wake of the US-led war in Iraq. The three neighbors share concerns that any move toward self-rule by the Kurds in northern Iraq could spark unrest among their own Kurdish minorities.
Miro was scheduled to also meet with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. In comments to Turkish newspapers on the eve of his visit Miro said that regional countries such as Turkey, Iran and Syria should strengthen their ties in a bid to resist US efforts to reshape the Middle East.
“The whole world knows about America’s policy to establish a new order in the Middle East,” Miro told the daily Sabah on Monday. “Therefore I think Turkey, Syria and Iran as well as other countries need to act more and more together because if we stay alone it becomes easier to do what has been done to Iraq,” he was quoted as saying. Boosting bilateral trade and economic cooperation was also high on Miro’s agenda here. The sides were expected to ink accords on encouraging mutual investment and preventing double taxation in trade.
Miro’s visit marks an impressive improvement in ties between the two neighbors, which had come to the brink of war in 1998 over Turkish accusations that Damascus was supporting “terrorists” — Turkish Kurdish rebels who have waged a 15-year armed campaign for self-rule against Ankara.
Tensions eased in October 1998 when Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan left Damascus, his longtime safe haven, and Syria pledged to stop harboring his armed militants. But the flourishing ties between Turkey and Syria have caused unease in Washington. “I think anything that Turkey does with Syria or does with Iran should fit into an overall policy with us, of getting those countries to change their bad behavior,” US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said in an interview with Turkish television in May.
Miro’s visit follows Gul’s talks in Washington last week, in which Turkey and the US sought to mend fences following Ankara’s failure to back the war in Iraq and persisting tensions over Iraqi Kurdistan. Keen to makeup for his wartime rebuff, Ankara is considering a US request to send troops to Iraq to help the United States to stabilize the country.
