Telephone Call from Ankara – An Overlooked Surprise: Israel’s Offer to Withdraw from the Golan Heights in Return of a lasting and solid peace

During the last days, a very important incident was overlooked in the Turkish media which in an ostrich like reflex enclosed itself to its territory due to the tiring acceleration of political events. According to the BBC (1), on Tuesday 22th of April, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan played the role of an interlocutor between the troubled neighbours of Israel and Syria and convened the message of the Israeli PM Ehud Olmert which indicates that Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange of a long lasting peace with Syria.

To recall, the Golan Heights which plays a utmost strategic role be it in terms of reconnaissance,  tactical superiority,  water resources,  and others was occupied by Israel during the notorious 6 Day War of 1967, and defended during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Syria urges the return of the Golan Heights for the beginning of any political opening on the issue of peace between the two parties.

According to the BBC” Mr Olmert’s office did not deny the Syrian reports, choosing only to state that they “refuse to comment on the matter”. It is also important that Erdogan’s telephone call took days prior to his official visit to the Syrian capital Damascus. Nevertheless, Turkey’s policy with Israel which began with a rapprochement during the second part of the 1990s, and the spring time entered in the aftermath of the Öcalan’s purge from Syria during the 1998 and the “Adana Agreement” between the two.  The importance of the Adana Agreement was it elevated Turkey to a position to have good relations with the two simultaneously and which elevated it to a potential  interlocutor.  We can just say that this is a  very important development for Turkey in the Middle East. If this process between Syria and Israel can work out, then Turkey should began to play a role which it aspired from the Bagdad Pact days to play the “so-called brother” policy.

This article is not finished yet. these are the preliminary ideas about this very important incident, keep updated.

notes:

the map is taken from the :

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/golan_heights_rel89.jpg

the photo is taken from the

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Golan_357PAN.jpg

(1). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7362937.stm