BY HASAN CEMAL
MILLIYET- Peace and stability in the Middle East are vital for our region, the world and of course our country. A Mideast lacking peace and stability means trouble for everybody. So we shouldn't let it explode. All countries should help this process and make serious efforts to establish peace and stability. Turkey is doing this. It has been playing an active role, particularly recently, so the people of the region can enjoy peace and stability. The recent heavy diplomatic traffic and activity in Ankara on the Middle East shows how important regional peace and stability is for Turkey.
But there's also another point. Turkey is becoming a regional power with rising importance for peace and stability in the Middle East. In this respect, obviously, the beginning of President Abdullah Gul's term will help our foreign policy. Istanbul hosted a broad-based conference about Iraq, the US secretary of state and Iranian foreign minister visited Ankara simultaneously, the Israeli and Palestinian presidents are both in Ankara this week, following visits of the Syrian president and Saudi king to Turkey, and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan visited all the countries in the region; all this diplomatic activity shows Turkey's rising importance in the Middle East, where peace and balances are always on the knife's edge.
But establishing peace and stability in the Middle East is no easy task. Towards this end the Palestinian issue, which is seen as the root of all the region's problems, must be resolved, and the Palestinians should share Jerusalem and have an independent state next to Israel. Unless the Palestinian issue is resolved, peace and stability in the Middle East, the Arab world and even the Islamic world will remain just a dream. The Palestinian issue is feeding Islamic radicalism, terrorism and violence in the name of Islam in Iraq and Afghanistan and creates legitimacy for authoritarian regimes particularly in the Arab world. In addition, it strengthens Iran's hand. The Palestinian issue also creates pretexts which spread Tehran's influence both in Palestine and Lebanon.
So if we don't want the Mideast to explode, the Palestinian-Israeli peace process must first be revived, and successful results are needed from the Annapolis summit in the US at the end of this month. Obviously, the US shouldn't subject the region to another Iraq by, for example, attacking Iran. This is another precondition for the Mideast not exploding. Iran's not developing nuclear weapons, Syria's not intervening in Lebanon's presidential elections this month and putting Iran at a distance; all these issues show how complex the issue of regional peace and stability is. Finally, if Turkey wants to play a more active role for regional peace and stability, it should develop a new strategy on the Kurdish issue and the violence of the terrorist PKK. At the highest level of this new strategy, this should include marginalization of the PKK and opening the doors to dialogue with northern Iraq. In other words, Turkey, which has started to wield influence for peace and stability in the Middle East, must prevent Iraqi and regional policies from being used by the terrorist PKK or those behind it.