SOURCE: Arabic News
The Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said he will visit Syria in April, despite the call made by the US on Ankara to join the international efforts on Damascus, while Ankara stressed that "democracy and the dissemination of freedoms in various parts of the region is Turkey's basic policy."
The state visit which is to be carried out by Sezer to Damascus will be a response to the state visit held by the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Turkey by the end of 2004 and resulted in making a turning point in the quality of relations between the two countries.
Sezer said in reaction to a question, during a celebration of accepting credential of several ambassadors at the presidential palace, whether he will head to Syria despite current conditions "of course I will go." The Turkish media indicated that the visit will be on April 13 and 14.
On Monday, the American ambassador in Ankara said he hopes that Turkey will join the "international consensus" on the UN Security Council resolution 1559 but the American ambassador did not ask Sezer to abrogate his visit to Syria but the Turkish mass media explained his statement as an implicit call for the Turkish President not to hold the visit.
The Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul stressed on Wednesday that his country is actually part of the international consensus concerning Syria.
He said that the statement of the American ambassador was misunderstood. He added "democracy and the dissemination of freedoms in all parts of the region is a Turkish policy and Turkey is part of the international community."
However, Turkish diplomats in Damascus said that the American officials are not pleased with Ankara's silence concerning developments in Lebanon. They indicated the visit of a Turkish people's delegation to Damascus to voice solidarity and support of the Turkish people with the Syrian people in confrontation of the American pressures and the Israeli threats.
A matter which raised the anger of certain American circles."