BY NURAY BASARAN
AKSAM- Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s Mideast visits are to include Palestine, Israel and Jordan. These visits will be a thorny road politically speaking. Despite this, will Gul be able to grow roses on these thorns? During last year’s flare-up in the Mideast conflict, Israel carried out very harsh and violent operations against Palestinian refugee camps, which disturbed Turkey. Erdogan then branded the operations “state terrorism,” which soured our relations with Israel. Later, reports that Israeli agents were active in northern Iraq only exacerbated the tension. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s subsequent visit to Turkey in an attempt to rein in the situation and get relations back on track, and Gul’s response, should not be forgotten.
Gul’s current visit is important politically, symbolically and substantially. He will push to keep Ankara’s relations with Palestine on the maximal level and to make this weekend’s elections in Palestine the beginning of a wave of peace. He will also discuss Turkish-Israeli relations. In addition, the Iraq issue will be brought up, and his visit may herald tough days to come.