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Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
April 6 2013
ErdoÄ?an will go to Gaza, but how?
by MURAT YETKÄ°N
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's second visit to Turkey in almost
one month seems to be focusing on the Middle East Peace process.
Especially after the Israeli apology to Turkey, made possible by the
U.S., the White House believes that Turkey should be included back in
the peace process alongside Egypt, but with a more active role
considering its apparently persuasive influence over the Hamas regime
in Gaza.
After accepting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's apology
for the killing of nine Turks on their way to Gaza in 2010, thanks to
the personal mediation of U.S. President Barack Obama, Turkish Prime
Minister Tayyip ErdoÄ?an has added a Gaza visit to his travel plans, in
order to make the point that Turkey will not allow the Palestinians to
live in isolation.
It will certainly be flattering for Khaled Meshaal, the re-elected
leader of Hamas, to host ErdoÄ?an there. But it will possibly be not so
pleasant for Mahmoud Abbas, as the Fatah President of the Palestinian
state divided into two between Gaza and Ramallah, the West Bank. Right
after the apology, a Jerusalem Post story quoted an unnamed
Palestinian official in Ramallah saying that Fatah would not be happy
about a visit by ErdoÄ?an to Gaza only. The story was denied by the
Palestinian Embassy in Ankara, but the point was taken. Ankara knows
very clearly that media operations are a part of active diplomacy
nowadays, as was demonstrated in the case of ErdoÄ?an's interview in
the Politiken newspaper in Denmark on March 21, answering a question
on his previous `Zionism' remarks, just a day before Israel's apology.
Sources told the Hürriyet Daily News that the Politiken interview had
been carefully arranged through American, Turkish, Danish and Israeli
diplomatic channels, in order to help Obama find a way to make
Netanyahu aplogize and ErdoÄ?an accept it. The Jerusalem Post story,
like Politiken, could well be another example to aid diplomacy.
During the recent Arab League summit in Doha on March 26-27, Abbas
casually asked a question to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu
about whether ErdoÄ?an would visit Gaza, and if so, when. DavutoÄ?lu's
reply was that no study had yet been done to clarify that, according
to diplomatic sources talking to HDN. That still holds as of Friday,
April 5. It is clear that ErdoÄ?an wants to go to Gaza, and he wants to
go there preferably in the second half of April or in the first half
of May, before he goes to visit Obama on May 16.
On the other hand, there is a calendar and a set of circumstances that
don't make a visit to Gaza very easy. First of all, Turkey and Israel
are expected to start compensation talks next week, on April 11 and
12, in Turkey, to establish the amounts to be paid to the families of
the victims killed by Israeli commandoes on board the Mavi Marmara
boat. Then, proceedings to upgrade diplomatic relations back to the
level of appointing reciprocal ambassadors will start. That process is
expected to be completed by the end of June. In the mean time, there
is ErdoÄ?an's U.S. visit, which itself may be further complicated by
Armenian initiatives in Congress, as in every April.
And there are also geographical restrictions. If ErdoÄ?an would like to
go to Gaza, without touching Israeli soil, there are only two ways:
One is the Mavi Marmara route, the sea way, which is not likely. The
other is the Refah border gate between Gaza and Egypt, taking the
example of the Arab League that visited Gaza in November 2012; ErdoÄ?an
would then have to go to Egypt first. If he wants to include Ramallah
in his visit, the option would be to travel through Israeli territory.
A third option would be to visit Israel and both Palestinian
territories together. That would be the easiest route, using Ben
Gurion Airport as the terminal.
This option could be the most favorable, not only for the U.S., but
for the Palestinians and the Israelis as well. It will be interesting
diplomacy to watch.
April/06/2013
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-will-go-to-gaza-but-how.aspx?pageID=449&nID=44370&NewsCatID=409
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
April 6 2013
ErdoÄ?an will go to Gaza, but how?
by MURAT YETKÄ°N
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's second visit to Turkey in almost
one month seems to be focusing on the Middle East Peace process.
Especially after the Israeli apology to Turkey, made possible by the
U.S., the White House believes that Turkey should be included back in
the peace process alongside Egypt, but with a more active role
considering its apparently persuasive influence over the Hamas regime
in Gaza.
After accepting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's apology
for the killing of nine Turks on their way to Gaza in 2010, thanks to
the personal mediation of U.S. President Barack Obama, Turkish Prime
Minister Tayyip ErdoÄ?an has added a Gaza visit to his travel plans, in
order to make the point that Turkey will not allow the Palestinians to
live in isolation.
It will certainly be flattering for Khaled Meshaal, the re-elected
leader of Hamas, to host ErdoÄ?an there. But it will possibly be not so
pleasant for Mahmoud Abbas, as the Fatah President of the Palestinian
state divided into two between Gaza and Ramallah, the West Bank. Right
after the apology, a Jerusalem Post story quoted an unnamed
Palestinian official in Ramallah saying that Fatah would not be happy
about a visit by ErdoÄ?an to Gaza only. The story was denied by the
Palestinian Embassy in Ankara, but the point was taken. Ankara knows
very clearly that media operations are a part of active diplomacy
nowadays, as was demonstrated in the case of ErdoÄ?an's interview in
the Politiken newspaper in Denmark on March 21, answering a question
on his previous `Zionism' remarks, just a day before Israel's apology.
Sources told the Hürriyet Daily News that the Politiken interview had
been carefully arranged through American, Turkish, Danish and Israeli
diplomatic channels, in order to help Obama find a way to make
Netanyahu aplogize and ErdoÄ?an accept it. The Jerusalem Post story,
like Politiken, could well be another example to aid diplomacy.
During the recent Arab League summit in Doha on March 26-27, Abbas
casually asked a question to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu
about whether ErdoÄ?an would visit Gaza, and if so, when. DavutoÄ?lu's
reply was that no study had yet been done to clarify that, according
to diplomatic sources talking to HDN. That still holds as of Friday,
April 5. It is clear that ErdoÄ?an wants to go to Gaza, and he wants to
go there preferably in the second half of April or in the first half
of May, before he goes to visit Obama on May 16.
On the other hand, there is a calendar and a set of circumstances that
don't make a visit to Gaza very easy. First of all, Turkey and Israel
are expected to start compensation talks next week, on April 11 and
12, in Turkey, to establish the amounts to be paid to the families of
the victims killed by Israeli commandoes on board the Mavi Marmara
boat. Then, proceedings to upgrade diplomatic relations back to the
level of appointing reciprocal ambassadors will start. That process is
expected to be completed by the end of June. In the mean time, there
is ErdoÄ?an's U.S. visit, which itself may be further complicated by
Armenian initiatives in Congress, as in every April.
And there are also geographical restrictions. If ErdoÄ?an would like to
go to Gaza, without touching Israeli soil, there are only two ways:
One is the Mavi Marmara route, the sea way, which is not likely. The
other is the Refah border gate between Gaza and Egypt, taking the
example of the Arab League that visited Gaza in November 2012; ErdoÄ?an
would then have to go to Egypt first. If he wants to include Ramallah
in his visit, the option would be to travel through Israeli territory.
A third option would be to visit Israel and both Palestinian
territories together. That would be the easiest route, using Ben
Gurion Airport as the terminal.
This option could be the most favorable, not only for the U.S., but
for the Palestinians and the Israelis as well. It will be interesting
diplomacy to watch.
April/06/2013
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-will-go-to-gaza-but-how.aspx?pageID=449&nID=44370&NewsCatID=409
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress