OPINION murat-yetkin
Turkey seeks Libyan truce before Ramadan
HDN | 7/14/2011 12:00:00 AM | MURAT YETKİN - murat.yetkin@hurriyet.com.tr
Preparing to host his colleagues for the Libya Contact Group meeting in Istanbul on July 15-16, the Turkish foreign minister called Thursday for a solution in Libya before the holy month of Ramadan so that the situation in the North African country does not deteriorate.
Preparing to host his colleagues for the Libya Contact Group meeting in Istanbul on July 15-16, the Turkish foreign minister called Thursday for a solution in Libya before the holy month of Ramadan so that the situation in the North African country does not deteriorate.
“If a cease-fire cannot be maintained and air raids continue during Ramadan, that would only be a gift to Moammar Gadhafi,” Ahmet Davutoğlu told a group of journalists at the historic Çırağan Palace by the Bosphorus where the fourth Libya Contact Group meeting will be held.
That leaves only a half a month ahead of the group of countries, since Ramadan starts Aug. 1.
Davutoğlu was proud to say that it was the Turkish proposal which will be discussed as a road map for a solution to the ongoing civil war in Libya.
The road map that Turkey is proposing could be summed up as follows:
• First a cease fire should be declared between Gadhafi’s forces in the capital Tripoli and the resistance forces based in Benghazi. That ceasefire should be monitored by the United Nations. “Turkey is willing to take part in that monitoring force,” Davutoğlu says.
• Then, the basic needs of the strife-torn cities, such as water, food and fuel, should be supplied again under U.N. auspices.
• “In the meantime, an exit strategy for Gadhafi to leave power, but not necessarily the country, should be sought by revising the U.N. Resolution 1973 if necessary,” Davutoğlu said.
A journalist asked whether that means a “Hosni Mubarak-type solution.” “It could be,” Davutoğlu answered.
Another colleague asked whether it would be safe for Gadhafi to stay in the country under such circumstances. “If an agreement is reached, that would not be a problem,” Davutoğlu said, smiling.
• Turkey’s proposal is to set up a restructuring commission for any post-Gadhafi Libya. According to the proposal, the core of the commission would consist of five people: Two from Tripoli who would be accepted to Benghazi, two from Benghazi who would be acceptable to Tripoli and a fifth who would be named by those four who would set up the basis for a new constitution in Libya.
• One of the most interesting suggestions in Turkey’s road map draft is to avoid acts of revenge after Gadhafi. Ankara thinks lessons should be drawn from the devastating de-Baathification process in Iraq, which is now seen as the main reason of the resistance to the new regime to be established in the country.
The Libya conference takes place at a time when Turkey’s relations with the European Union are strained because of the Cyprus issue. Davutoğlu said a day before that if no solution is found to the reunification of the Greek and Turkish parts of Cyprus by 2012, Turkey might freeze its political relations with the EU and would not recognize the Greek-run Republic of Cyprus as the term president in the second half of that year.
When reminded of the reaction of EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, who said that “it was not time to make such comments,” Davutoğlu replied: “On the contrary, I believe it is the time to say that. We are trying to call them to take measures before it’s too late. That is what we are trying to do in Libya as well.”