Syria’s Foreign Minister Farouq A-Shara’a began an official visit to Ankara yesterday. According to Al-Jazeera television, A-Shara’a announced in a press conference that Turkey and Syria are united in their opposition to the war against Iraq and will do whatever they can to prevent it.
A-Shara’a announced that the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad wants to keep the door wide open for full cooperation with Turkey, in all regards.
Yashar Yakesh, the Turkish foreign minister, announced that his country wants to overcome past disagreements and to engage in full cooperation with Syria.
Turkey also expressed its willingness to talk about matters that were considered in the past as key problems in the dispute between the two countries: water and borders.
Syria is dependent on water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The upper-stream country is Turkey, which for the past 15 years has refused Syria’s demands for additional water flow. The border problem goes back to 1939, when France decided to transfer the Alexandreta region in north-west Syria to Turkish control. Syria has since vociferously objected to this decision and negotiations over water always return to the border issue.