Turkey Live Coverage (5 March): A Bridging Role on Syria and Iran

2100 GMT: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin over his election victory. In return, Putin reportedly underlined the importance of bilateral relations and promised to advance ties.

2020 GMT: After the French Constitutional Council's ruling out the genocie-denial bill (which was to punish people who denied the "Armenian genocide"in the Ottoman era) as it was "unconstitutional", deputy minister Bulent Arinc welcomed this development but said that Ankara would keep its political, economic and military sanctions on Paris since French President Nicolas Sarkozy had already asked his government to have a new draft of the original bill. 

2000 GMT: Turkish Foreign Ministry says the trilateral meeting between foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan will be held in Nakhcevan on 7 March. It is stated that the first meeting that took place in Urmia, Iran on 16 April 2011 were useful in developing the understanding of cooperation and consolidating regional stability and security. 

1550 GMT: The Turkish Military Electronics Industry (Aselsan)'s report on the Uludere tragedy has been submitted to the Parliament.

In January, 34 civilians were killed in bombing by Turkish jets in Uludere. The dead, in the midst of operations against members of the outlawed terrorist/separatist organisation, PKK, were smuggling cigarettes from Iraq to Turkey's Sirnak. Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) said that the operation was carried out on the basis of intelligence, but they never explained the source of the information. 

Parliament asked Aselsan to give a detailed report on video images  from unmanned aerial vehicles.  On the basis of this, Republican People's Party MP and Human Rights Investigation Committee member Levent Gok said that three separate groups of people with animals were clearly seen and reported to the authorities before the bombing.He said it must have been known that they were only trading. 

1445 GMT: Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with Ayad Allawi, the leader of Iraq's  al-Iraqiyya Party. According to a Turkish diplomat, Davutoglu told the Sunni leader that the constitution is key to stability in Iraq and asked him to end the sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni groups. 

1430 GMT: EA's Aysegul Er reports from Ankara that Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagıs has declared that his speech about the Cyprus issue (see 1100 GMT) was misunderstood. Bagis said, “It saddened me to see that there are some pro-Greek Cyprus circles on the island who tried to interpret my remarks in a certain way by picking and highlighting only some parts of them.” He emphasiSed that the main goal is finding a solution over Cyprus.

Bagis added, “We are not introducing a new policy on Cyprus here. Our main goal remains a solution as soon as possible. But no one can expect Turkey to abandon the [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus] KKTC if no solution is found.”

1245 GMT: MP Fikri Isik, The head of the education sub-committee of the Grand National AssemBly of Turkey, has defended religious schools and blasted "Marxist-Leninists". 

Isik's claim comes amidst debate over a proposal prescribing a compulsory 12-year education in three parts, 4+4+4. Students can choose to go to vocational high schools, religious high schools (Imam Hatip), or preparatory high schools for universities. This proposal has been criticised harshly over concerns that children, at the age of 11, will be asked --- or forced by families --- to choose a profession. The proposal also re-opened religious high schools which had been closed when the compulsory education system was upgraded to a non-stop 8 years. 

Isik said: "I am also a graduate of Imam Hatip. What happens if they have middle schools? How many terrorists have been raised there for God's sake? Religion is a determining factor in societies. Are we Marxist-Leninists? Do we believe that religion is opium of societies? Do we, as a Turkish nation, have such belief? These are stupid things."  

1220 GMT: Turkish Foreign Ministry officials denied reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was deliberately not invited to the second meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group, taking place in Istanbul in March. The officials said said the meeting will be at the level of foreign ministers.

Diplomatic sources added: "We will still consider not inviting [French Foreign Minister Alain] Juppe. But we won’t rule it out, since this will not be a bilateral meeting, but a multi-party gathering."

The third meeting will be in Paris, probably in April. Ankara says it has not decided whether it will participate. 

1115 GMT: It is confirmed that Prime Minister Erdogan will visit Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 28 March. Two leaders are expected to talk about the outcomes of the nuclear security summit in South Korea and the future of the Iranian nuclear programme. 

1110 GMT: One person has been wounded in a sound-bomb explosion in front of the Supreme Court of Appeals building, near the Prime Ministry.

1100 GMT: According to the Turkish daily Zaman, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Iran at the end of March, following the nuclear security summit in South Korea. At the centre of his agenda will be Iran's talks with the "5+1" Powers, which will take place in Istanbul. 

To play its ‘bridging’ role, Ankara wants to establish a relative autonomy between Tehran and Western powers. This will require a well-balanced strategy creating room for mediation between two parties. After relations with the Assad regime deteriorated and Ankara discarded its Syrian ally over "humanitarian crimes", Turkish officials have been alerted to the rapid increase of Iranian-funded foreign companies in Turkey.

According to the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), foreign companies financed by Iran in 2011 totaled 590, an increase of 41% compared to the previous year. Officials suspect this could be part of a broader Iranian strategy that will use these front companies to bypass UN-sponsored sanctions. 

Another reaction to Iran, and to Russia, came from the Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Thursday. He said that Russia and Iran would soon realise they had little choice but to join international diplomatic efforts for the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The second area of this relative autonomy is Turkey’s clear position on Syria. In the wake of the first ‘Friends of Syria’ meeting in Tunis, which did not bring any decision on arming Syrian dissidents, Istanbul will be the second meeting place in March.

It is claimed that this meeting would not arm Syrians as well but Ankara, without a UN consensus, is continuing its relatively balanced strategy, looking for a firmer international campaign whose legitimacy would credit its diplomatic efforts as a regional power. On Friday, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with the leaders of the Syrian opposition and, the next day, he likened the “daily-basis crimes against humanity” in Syria to the bloodshed in the Balkans wars of the 1990s. Davutoglu also expressed that firmer international measures could include the possibility of arming Syrian dissidents. 

On Saturday, FM Davutoglu visited religious leaders of minorities from Jewish, Assyrian Catholic, Greek, Syriac Orthodox and Armenian communities. He assured that all of the minorities were the inseparable parts of Turkish nation and stressed the importance of inter-faith dialogue in the region. 

On a different front, Turkey's Minister for European Union Affairs, Egemen Bagis, threatened the EU. He said: “Reunification under a deal that [Turkish and Greek Cypriot] leaders could reach, creation of two independent states after an agreement between the two leaders if they are unable to reach a deal for reunification, or annexation of the [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus] KKTC to Turkey. These are all options on the table.” In response, the main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP) leader Özkan Yorgancıoğlu condemned Bagis’s remarks and said that annexation was unacceptable.