BY SAMI KOHEN
MILLIYET- Speaking with journalists en route from northern Iraq, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called October a 'month of peace.' Indeed, Turkish diplomacy made important moves which focused on the region last month. Besides Davutoglu, President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited many neighboring countries, signed new agreements with them, and made initiatives to end conflict in the region and promote peace. Among these efforts, Davutoglu talked about ones to resolve the dispute between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. Davutoglu firstly met with the foreign ministers of these two countries in Istanbul and prepared an action plan to solve this problem. When Davutoglu was on his way to Bosnia, Gul visited Serbia. Now the parties are working on this plan with a sort of mediation by Turkey.
This initiative mentioned by Davutoglu is only one of the missions that Turkey has undertaken. Whether you call it mediation or a facilitating role, Turkey is getting involved in finding solutions to conflicts in the region and doing more than any other state to create rapprochement between parties. The list of recent efforts by Turkey towards this end is very long. Here are just a few. Syria-Israel: Turkey made an official intervention as a mediator last year and set up indirect talks, but this process ended following the Gaza incidents. Fatah-Hamas: Turkey did shuttle diplomacy in order to make peace between the parties. It made the same efforts to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza. Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites: Turkish diplomats made contacts with all leaders in order to reconcile the parties in conflict in Iraq and tried to promote compromises on critical issues. The crisis in Lebanon: Ankara established direct contact with parties to resolve the post-election crisis and reconcile them. Pakistan-Afghanistan: Ankara hosted the countries' two leaders, which blame each other for terrorism, and tried to reconcile them. Iraq-Syria: During visits to these two countries, Erdogan and others worked to dispel tension over recent bombings in Baghdad. Georgia-Russia: Turkish diplomats strived to stop the armed conflict which broke out between the two countries last year.
Of course one can't resolve such disagreements overnight, so not all of these efforts were successful. But Ankara benefits from playing a mediation or facilitating role in two ways: First, in terms of Turkey's prestige and influence as a regional actor, and second, in terms of eliminating problems and making peace in the region. The government's mission has turned mediation into an active Turkish foreign policy sector. In this job, starting initiatives is important. Of course, if any results are reached, this promotes the two aims mentioned above. And Turkey's good will and efforts will be appreciated again, which can only benefit us.