Gul: We Are Extremely Concerned About Developments In Palestine

ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul has said, ''we are extremely concerned about the recent developments in Palestine. Such policies make steps taken to provide peace in the Middle Easter more difficult.''
Replying to questions of journalists, Gul said on Friday, ''tension has already escalated in the whole Middle East. It is useless to make it more difficult. Unfortunately, acts of violence have been continuing, killing a number of innocent civilians.
''The road map prepared by the Middle East Quartet should be put into practice as soon as possible. If it is necessary, a monitoring committee should be set up under the structure of the quartet. Everyone should exert efforts and review their policies to ease the atmosphere in the region,'' he said.
Gul noted, ''images showing helicopters opening fire on children have caused outrage in the Middle East, the Islam world, in the whole modern world, democratic countries, the United States and in the European Union (EU). Such policies make steps taken to provide peace in the Middle Easter more difficult.''
''Such acts of violence have also hampered efforts to provide democratization and transparency in the Middle East,'' he stressed.
Gul told reporters, ''the suicide attacks of Palestinian people are also wrongful. We have said on numerous occasions that such attacks would not help Palestinians in their national case. The tense atmosphere has been affecting also Turkey like the other regional countries.''
Giving information about the monitoring committee formed under the structure of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Gul said, ''I sent a letter to Malaysia, the current term president of OIC, to take some steps about the issues of Iraq and Palestine. In return, Malaysia has taken action in a pleasing way and started holding meetings with members of the quartet. A committee was formed with the participation of Malaysia, Turkey, Morocco, Senegal and Palestine. The committee has begun visiting the United Nations, the United States, the EU and Russia.''
Recalling that Turkish State Minister Besir Atalay attended the meetings in EU term president Ireland, and he attended the meetings in Russia, Gul added, ''the committee will hold talks with U.S. officials in Washington D.C. between June 1 and 2, and with United Nations officials in New York.''
(UK-AÖ) 21.05.2004