Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RIVISTA STAMPA~DENTRO DE lA PRENSA~BASIN ÖZETi
Turkish Probe November 25, 1993
5
Middle East Peace is Key
to Turco-Syrian Dispute
Murat Yetkin
The
Middle East peace process is playing an
increasingly important role in the search for a
solution to the dispute between Turkey and its
southern neighbor Syria over Kurdish secessionism.
Kurdish secessionism is the leading problem the
Turkish government has to solve, and Ankara has
been accusing Syria of sheltering the leaders of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) since the early
1980s.
Two security protocols were signed between the
Turkish and Syrian governments in 1987 and 1992,
stating that neither country will permit subversive activities
against each other from their own territory.
A new protocol was added to the former ones on
Nov. 20, 1993, at the end of three days of meetings
in Ankara with Maj. Gen. Badr AI-Hassan, the head
of the security desk at the Syrian Interior Ministry.
Observers have voiced their doubts as to whether
this third protocol will work. Moreover, they say that
the protocol is Damascus' favor to Ankara to save
the domestic credibility of the government -- a new
opportunity for the prime minister to promote the effectiveness
of the government in working' against
Kurdish secessionism. They claim that sheltering
armed groups active in the Middle East is a major
"and perhaps the main" factor in Syrian foreign policy,
and the Hafez AI-Assad regime is in no way inclined
to give it up so easily.
There is truth to this approach since Ankara has
heard nothing but categorical denial from Damascus
on the presence of PKK leadership in Syria, despite
firm evidence -- addresses and telephone numbers
of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in Damascus -- presented
in person by former Prime Minister Süleyman
Demirel to Assad in late 1992.
The fourth round of the tripartite talks between Turkey,
Syria and Iran on regional security malters and
Iraq, which was to be held on Nov. 25 in Ankara, has
been quietly canceled because of Syrian reluctance
to meet.
But it seems that neither Ankara nor Tehran is
complaining about not having the talks at the scheduled
time. There are two main reasons for this: First,
all three countries want to solve more problems at
the bilateral and technicallevels before having tripartite
and general talks in which foreign ministers are
to express their political wills in one direction or another.
Secondly, they all want to see what is going to
happen in the Middle East peace process as regards
Syria's role.
December is Awaited: The next month is 8'l