Turkish FM Davutoglu denies dropping peace drive

Turkey is not abandoning the language of peace in favor of the language of war on the Syrian crisis, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday, highlighting Ankara's recent efforts on international platforms as evidence of its non-belligerence. Ankara's moves to host a crucial meeting between the P5+1 group and Iran in Istanbul over the Islamic republic's nuclear program is a clear indication that Turkey is not bent on war, he said yesterday at a NATO foreign and defense ministers' meeting on Syria. Davutoglu also said Turkey's work in hosting the "Friends of the Syrian People" earlier this month had been instrumental in putting pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. NATO foreign and defense ministers examined the fragile cease-fire in Syria yesterday, a day before the Friends of the Syrian People was set to discuss new sanctions against Damascus in Paris. Davutoglu briefed his counterparts and urged them not to drop the Syria case from their attention. "It's important that Syria has become an item on NATO's working calendar," Davutoglu told a small number of reporters who traveled with him to Brussels. "This time last year we had been talking about Libya and now Syria is on our agenda." Developments in Syria, especially those that have occurred since the implementation of the Annan peace plan, which resulted in a fragile cease-fire in the turmoil-hit country, were discussed during the dinner for NATO foreign and defense ministers yesterday. Recalling that Turkey is also attentively watching developments around its borders, particularly the moves of the terrorist PKK, Davutoglu said that "Turkey was determined to take all necessary precautions to protect the safety of its borders." "One hundred and ninety-six people have been killed since the cease-fire began," Davutoglu said, adding that al-Assad was using the process to buy more time. For the minister, there are three criteria needed for a real cease-fire in Syria. First, all tanks and heavy military equipment should be withdrawn to their barracks so they cannot put pressure on the people. Second, an effective monitoring system should be built in the entire country and third, peaceful demonstrations should be allowed to take place so that the Syrian people can continue to voice their demands, the minister said. "Otherwise a current picture depicting the status quo would [gain traction], and it would be in favor of the al-Assad regime."