Turkey has invited the President of Israel, Shimon Peres, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to address the Turkish Parliament next week.
The Israeli President and the Palestinian President will make their speeches together, in the same session of the Turkish Parliament, on 12 November in Ankara, a senior Turkish diplomat in Jerusalem confirmed on Wednesday.
Does this mean any greater involvement of Turkey in the Middle East peace process? “We will do what they ask us to do”, the senior Turkish diplomat said. “So far, they tell us, just keep on doing what you are already doing”.
The Israeli and Palestinian Presidents have been invited as official guests of Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul.
The Turkish invitation to the Palestinian President was confirmed on Tuesday, when the Turkish Consul-General in Jerusalem, Ercan Ozer, visited the Muqata’a (Palestinian Presidential Headquarters in Ramallah). The Consul-General’s car, a black limousine with a red Turkish flag posted on a small pole on the right side of the car’s hood, was parked inside the court of the Muqata’a, not far from the new light beige-pink stone memorial to the late Yasser Arafat, which is undergoing final touches before its official inauguration next week.
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