Erdoğan, army chief Özel hold lengthy talks

ANKARA

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel have held their longest talks so far, meeting for more than three hours in Ankara late May 1st.

The unusual length of the meeting, which came only a day after the two had met at an unusually short meeting of the National Security Council (MGK), aroused significant interest in the media. Some reports suggested Erdoğan and Özel had discussed Turkey’s action plan for Syria in the event that the U.N. peace efforts fail.

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç told reporters yesterday that the meeting was held on a national holiday day and that the two therefore had plenty of time for discussions. “It was a holiday. There is nothing more natural than discussing all issues that they did not have enough time to talk about before. You should not attribute importance to the time they spent together,” he said. Asked whether the talks concerned the situation in Syria, Arınç said: “I do not and I cannot know what the Prime Minister and the Chief of General Staff discussed.”