Turkey: Syria is serious about peace with Israel

Turkey believes that Syria is serious about making peace with Israel, and Ankara hopes to receive a positive response from Jerusalem to the message that Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is bringing with him from Damascus, Gul told Haaretz in an interview Monday.

Gul is currently on his first visit to Israel since taking office in March 2003. He is being accompanied by a large delegation of businessmen, journalists and government officials.

Gul declined to detail the content of the message from Damascus that he will deliver to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at their meeting Tuesday, but stressed that "in my estimation, the Syrian signals are serious and their intentions are good. They want to take part in the peace process; they expressed willingness to resume negotiations without preconditions; and they expect a positive Israeli response."

www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=522615&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

i think that will get them into the eu, and rightly so

The EU and Turkey have struck a deal over an EU demand that Turkey recognise Cyprus before membership talks begin.

The solution they found after two days of tough and at times heated talks was for Turkey to tacitly acknowledge the Cyprus government for the first time.

The deal clears the way for Turkey - large, poor and overwhelmingly Muslim - to start entry talks in October 2005.

But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted signing the protocol was not a formal recognition of Cyprus.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4103931.stm

How can you join an association of countries without recognizing one of them? (This is one of those times when I'd really like to know what was going on inside their brains.)

Edited to add something on point: If Turkey can broker a real peace, great. But somehow if I were in Israel I'd be suspicious. I don't believe the current Turkish government wants to be friends with Israel, treaties and what-not notwithstanding.

Israel is occupying part of its own territory and they are begging for peace?

Since both are key conditions to a peace settlement, and Turkey is silent about Syria's real intentions, I doubt that this is nothing more than more talk. Talk is cheap in the Middle East!