Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a phone meeting last evening with Barack Obama over the growing violence in Syria. According to a White House statement, Turkey and the United States agreed on the necessity of Gaddafi’s departure from Libya, as well as condemning Syrian leader Assad’s ”violent acts against his own citizens”.
Turkish news network NTV has indicated that following his phone meeting with Obama, PM Erdoğan called the Syrian leader Assad to convey the ‘US-Turkish joint position’. The same news network also made a reference to Debka.com, an intelligence analysis website deemed to have close ties to the Israeli intelligence, indicating that Erdoğan and Assad had been holding regular phone meetings in the last 6 weeks since the revolts started, adding that Erdoğan had also been informing Obama on his diplomatic progress with Assad, as well as getting the Turkish Intelligence Organization’s (MIT) Damascus office to share up to date information with the CIA, which is currently unable to run full-scale intelligence operations in Syria.
As a response to a press question on the matter, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan commented: ”I have clearly conveyed Mr. Assad our concern regarding recent developments. There are a lot of steps that the Syrian administration has to take. I will soon send them [Syria] a special envoy again; they will arrive in Damascus by Thursday and will meet with the Syrian leadership. The current process is an uncomfortable one for Turkey, and this will be conveyed to the Syrian leadership – however, it is our desire that the Syrian administration soon resolves these difficulties. However, we do not desire nor expect antidemocratic practices, especially an authoritarian, totalitarian and imposing establishment in Syria.”
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