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A planned visit of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s to Turkey on Friday is meant to heal the rift between Ankara and Washington and smooth out differences over a number of issues between the two NATO allies, Turkish analysts said.

New US Secretary of State John Kerry is visiting Turkey for talks expected to focus on the conflict in Syria.

The two Nato allies both oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but differ on how best to support the opposition.

The visit is being overshadowed by a row over comments by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called Zionism a “crime against humanity”.

US officials said Mr Kerry would raise the remarks directly with Mr Erdogan.

Israel’s relations with Turkey have deteriorated in recent years.

Yasin Aktay, the president of the Institute of Strategic Thinking (SDE), said that there are various issues need to be discussed between the two sides.

“During Kerry’s visit, all the pending issues in the region and on the bilateral level, including situation in Syria and Iraq will be put on the table,” he said.

“The US-Turkish relations are generally good, but not without even a thorny issue. There are differences in the approaches in Syria, Iraq, Israel and Iran, but both the United States and Turkey share the same goals,” Mehmet Sahin, a professor of international relations at the Ankara-based Gazi University, told Xinhua.

Voice of Russia, Xinhua, BBC

via Kerry’s Ankara visit to bridge the rift in US-Turkey ties: Voice of Russia.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu

New US Secretary of State John Kerry has been holding talks with his Turkish counterpart on the conflict in Syria.

At a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Mr Kerry said the two Nato allies shared a common goal – to end the suffering of innocent civilians in Syria.

Turkey and the US both oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but differ on how best to support the opposition.

The visit has been overshadowed by the Turkish PM’s remarks about Zionism.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week called Zionism a “crime against humanity” – remarks that have been widely condemned, and which Mr Kerry on Friday called “objectionable”.

On the subject of Syria, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said on Friday he was “personally pained and distraught” by the ongoing violence and suffering of civilians.

He said there was a “very small window of opportunity” for the Syrian government and the opposition to hold talks, and admitted that, for the UN, there was “not much political space”.

Mr Ban went on to say that, in his opinion, the only thing for the moment was to increase humanitarian assistance but it was “almost impossible” for aid agencies to provide enough relief, as they were continually “outpaced” by the need.

Frustration

The crisis in Syria has been a central issue in John Kerry’s first overseas trip as secretary of state, which is taking him to 11 countries in Europe and the Middle East.

He said in Ankara that the US and Turkey “both believe the first priority is to try and have a political solution. We would like to save lives, not see them caught up in a continuing war”.

Mr Davutoglu said their main objective was to “protect the innocent civilians of Syria”.

In Rome on Thursday, Mr Kerry promised direct aid to Syrian rebels in the form of food and medical supplies, but not the weapons they say they need to win.

Turkey has taken in more than 200,000 Syrian refugees and has been hit by deadly shelling across its 900km (560 mile) border with Syria.

Turkey wants the Syrian rebels to win the war as soon as possible and will be keen to convey its sense of frustration to Mr Kerry, the BBC’s James Reynolds in Istanbul says.

The US and other Nato allies have deployed Patriot missile interceptors to repel any possible attack by missiles or aircraft from Syria.

Mr Erdogan has been outspoken in his support for Syrian rebels and has advocated the creation of a buffer zone inside northern Syria to protect people fleeing the fighting.

Turkey began massing troops along the frontier in June last year after Syria shot down a Turkish reconnaissance jet off its coast.

In October the Turkish army fired on military targets in Syria in retaliation for cross-border mortar fire.

The rebel Free Syrian Army is thought to receive weapons and other supplies from Turkey.

‘Fuelling violence’

The US has refrained from arming the rebels, in part because of concerns the weapons could eventually fall into the hands of Islamist militants who might attack its interests.

On Thursday in Rome, Mr Kerry promised an additional $60m (£40m) in aid to the opposition Syrian National Coalition to help it deliver basic governance and other services in rebel-controlled areas.

He also promised direct support in the form of food and medical supplies to rebel forces, in what correspondents say was a shift in US policy on Syria.

Russia – a close ally of President Assad – has said the promises of aid to the opposition made by the US and other countries in the “Friends of Syria” group will encourage further violence rather than a negotiated solution.

“The decisions taken in Rome… directly encourage extremists towards precisely a violent seizure of power, despite the suffering of ordinary Syrians,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said.

via BBC News – John Kerry holds talks on Syria crisis in Ankara.

John Kerry to urge Turkey to patch up relations with Israel after Zionism row

Trip could be overshadowed by row over Turkish prime minister’s comments that Zionism was a crime against humanity

Staff and Reuters in Ankara

guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 March 2013 14.35 GMT

US secretary of state John Kerry, left, meets with Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu at Ankara Palas. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty Images

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, will urge the Turkish prime minister to restore the country’s “frozen” relationship with Israel on Friday, on his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office.

The collapse of ties between the two countries have undermined US

hopes that Turkey could play a role as a broker in the broader region – Washington sees Turkey as the key player in supporting Syria’s opposition and planning for the era after President Bashar al-Assad.

But the trip could be overshadowed by a row over comments made by the Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, earlier this week, when he described Zionism as a crime against humanity.

Kerry is meeting Turkish leaders in talks meant to focus on Syria’s civil war and bilateral interests from energy security to counter-terrorism.

But Erdogan’s comment at a UN meeting in Vienna this week, condemned by his Israeli counterpart, the White House and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, has clouded his trip.

“This was particularly offensive, frankly, to call Zionism a crime against humanity … It does have a corrosive effect [on relations],” a senior US official told reporters as Kerry flew to Ankara.

“I am sure the secretary will be very clear about how dismayed we were to hear it,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

“To state the obvious, it complicates our ability to do all of the things that we want to do together when we have such a profound disagreement about such an important thing.”

Kerry is expected to urge Turkey to attempt to restore relations with Israel. “The Turkey-Israel relationship is frozen,” the US official said. “We want to see a normalization … not just for the sake of the two countries but for the sake of the region and, frankly, for the symbolism,” he said.

“Not that long ago [you] had these two countries demonstrating that a majority Muslim country could have very positive and strong relations with the Jewish state and that was a sign for the region [of what was] possible.”

Erdogan told the UN Alliance of Civilizations meeting in Vienna on Wednesday: “Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become necessary to view Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.”

The head of Europe’s main rabbinical group condemned his words as a “hateful attack” on Jews. Ties between Israel and mostly Muslim Turkey have been frosty since 2010, when Israeli marines killed nine Turks in fighting aboard a Palestinian aid ship that tried to breach Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks, there has been a run of reports in the Turkish and Israeli media about efforts to repair relations, including a senior diplomatic meeting last month in Rome and military equipment transfers.

The reports have not been confirmed by either government.

Officials said Syria would top the agenda when Kerry meets Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, building on the discussions in Rome between 11 mostly European and Arab nations within the “Friends of Syria” group.

After the Rome meeting, Kerry said on Thursday the United States would for the first time give non-lethal aid to the rebels and more than double support to the civilian opposition, although Western powers stopped short of pledging arms.

“We need to continue the discussion which took place in Rome … in terms of the main goals there is no daylight between us and the Americans,” a senior Turkish official said.

“A broad agreement was reached on supporting the opposition. Now our sides need to sit down and really flesh out what we can do to support them in order to change the balance on the ground,” he said.

Turkey has been one of Assad’s fiercest critics, hosting a Nato Patriot missile defence system, including two US batteries, to protect against a spillover of violence and leading calls for international intervention.

It has spent more than $600m sheltering refugees from the conflict that began almost two years ago, housing some 180,000 in camps near the border and tens of thousands more who are staying with relatives or in private accommodation.

Washington has given $385m in humanitarian aid for Syria but US president Barack Obama has so far refused to give arms, arguing it is difficult to prevent them from falling into the hands of militants who could use them on Western targets.

Turkey, too, has been reluctant to provide weapons, fearing direct intervention could cause the conflict to spill across its borders.

via John Kerry to urge Turkey to patch up relations with Israel after Zionism row | World news | guardian.co.uk.