ISTANBUL - Justice and Development Party (AK Party) delegation, which held meetings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and visited Palestine, returned to Turkey late on Thursday.
AK Party deputies Mevlut Cavusoglu, Egemen Bagis and Omer Celik answered questions of reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.
Celik said that they had useful meetings and the most important ones were with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Foreign Affairs Advisor of Israeli Prime Minister. He added that they also met Israeli National Security Council Advisor, Israeli Military Intelligence Chairman and Palestinian Negotiation Minister.
Celik said that they have listened their interlocutors' assessments about regional peace process. He added that they said they support peace process in the Middle East and any step should be taken trough dialogue and cooperation between Israel and Palestine. ''On the contrary'', he added, ''some half measures can affect regional peace negatively in medium and long term''.
Celik said that ''they would continue to divulge issues which they consider wrong''. He added that they told officials that ''extreme violence or suicide attacks against civilians in both sides affect peace process negatively''.
''We have told Palestinian officials that a red line should be drawn between defending a legitimate case and terrorism, and a legitimate case can only be defended within this framework,'' noted Celik.
When asked whether there was a demand that Turkey plays the role of mediator, Celik said that everybody in the region view from a positive angle such a role (that Turkey would play).
Celik said that they also expressed Turkey's expectations that Israel is going to take steps to lift isolation of Turkish Cypriots.
(GC-ULG) 03.09.2004