Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Wednesday warned his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, that an ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict without a political solution was bound to harm relations between Israel and Turkey.
Sharon, accompanied by Minister of Industry and Trade Dalia Itzik and Minister for Regional Cooperation Tzipi Livni, arrived in Turkey on Wednesday morning on a one-day visit for meetings with Ecevit and other senior statesmen, said Haaretz newspaper.
The meeting between Sharon - on his first official visit to Turkey - and Ecevit lasted for over two hours.
During the meeting, Ecevit told Sharon that the Israeli demand for a complete end to violence before the start of negotiations was “unrealistic,” AFP and Haaretz said.
At this stage, he told Sharon, there was a need to renew negotiations, lift closures on Palestinian areas and allow international observers into the Occupied Territories.
"In the last few years our relations have developed in the fields of economic, technological and security relations," said Ecevit, when asked at a joint press conference after the meeting if the current situation would damage Turkey's good relations with Israel.
"We give a great deal of importance to quiet and stability in the Mideast and we don't want events in the area to badly affect these relations."
Sharon repeated his stance that there would be no negotiations before a complete cessation of the violence.
"Arafat has to decide if he wants to be the head of an independent state and act in accordance, or to be the head of a gang of murderers," Sharon said. "If he chooses the way of peace, I am [also] committed to peace and prepared to make painful concessions to reach it."
Talks, meanwhile, covered growing military ties between Turkey and Israel, including the sale of surface-to-air missiles to Turkey and a project to upgrade Turkish tanks, Israel Radio reported.
Police in Istanbul took 131 people into custody Tuesday during a demonstration against Sharon's visit. Police moved in on a group of protesters who had gathered in the center of the city shouting slogans against the Sharon, said AFP.
Most of those arrested appeared to be women wearing black chadors, a form of dress normally only worn in Turkey by hardline Islamic fundamentalists. Some of the women were punched by police officers during scuffles, a witness said.
Earlier, three journalists from conservative Islamic newspapers were taken into custody for questioning after publishing articles calling on people to demonstrate, the privately-owned NTV television station reported, cited by the agency – Albawaba.com
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