Turkish premier visits Israel to promote peace

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Israel today for a visit seeking to mend relations with the Jewish state and join in a new wave of Middle East peace efforts.

Israel and Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim state, have long had strong military ties and important trade links. But relations grew strained last year when Erdogan, whose party has its roots in Turkey's Islamic movement, strongly criticised Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Erdogan’s trip marks the second time a Turkish premier has visited Israel. In 1994, then-Prime Minister Tansu Ciller brought an entourage of 200 ministers and business leaders on a three-day visit here.

World leaders have been flooding into the region in recent months, hoping to capitalise on a drop in violence and new peace hopes in the wake of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s death last year.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair went there in December and Russian President Vladimir Putin went last week, in the first visit here by a Kremlin leader.

Both visits were seen as efforts by the leaders to burnish their international reputations by casting themselves as key mediators in the Mideast conflict. With some in Washington questioning Turkey's role as a strategic ally, and Europeans increasingly sceptical about letting Turkey into the European Union, Erdogan appears to have come for the same reason.

“Turkey was always committed to peace and always will be committed to peace and security in the region,” he said on arrival.

Israel also welcomed the visit, which it can use to showcase the benefits of its alliance with a Muslim nation.

None of the high-profile visits has had much impact on peace efforts. Though Palestinians have welcomed calls for international mediation and renewed movement in the stalled “road map” peace plan, Israel has said it would not consider new peace talks until after it withdraws from the Gaza Strip this summer.

Erdogan, who is accompanied by top officials and business leaders, met Israeli President Moshe Katsav. He also plans to meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other top Israeli leaders. He is to sign a research and development agreement with Israel, and leaders from the two countries were also expected to work on a roughly €310m deal to have Israel upgrade 30 of Turkey’s F-4 Phantom jets.

Tomorrow, Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, is to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, Islam’s third-holiest site. He is then to head to the West Bank city of Ramallah for meetings with Palestinian leaders.

“In our meetings with the sides, we will remind (them of) our readiness for a possible go-between role or to host conferences in our country,” Erdogan said in Ankara, Turkey, before his departure for Israel. “I hope our contacts will help carry our relations with both Palestine and Israel to new frontiers.”

In a gesture ahead of Erdogan’s trip, Turkey gave the Palestinian Authority the title deeds of lands and property in the West Bank and Gaza it had acquired during the nearly 400-year rule here of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish daily Milliyet reported.

Turkey hopes the 140,000 pages of deeds, covering the years 1500 to 1914, will help Palestinians defend their rights in local and international courts, the paper said.