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Turkey's efforts in resolving Qatar crisis yield results - expert

Commentary Materials 21 July 2017 17:41 (UTC +04:00)
Since the beginning of the Qatar crisis, Turkey has held a number of diplomatic meetings to resolve it and today one can see the results of those efforts.
Turkey's efforts in resolving Qatar crisis yield results - expert

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 21

By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:

Since the beginning of the Qatar crisis, Turkey has held a number of diplomatic meetings to resolve it and today one can see the results of those efforts, Atilgan Bayar, Turkish foreign policy strategist, told Trend.

Stable position of Doha is of particular importance for the Qatar crisis resolution, according to him.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE announced about breaking their diplomatic relations with Qatar June 5, accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East. Later, the authorities of Libya, Yemen, as well as the Maldives and Mauritius also announced about severing diplomatic relations with Qatar.

Previously, the countries boycotting Qatar demanded the implementation of 12 conditions, while now the number of conditions has been reduced to six, Bayar said, adding that closure of the Turkish military base Al-Rayyan in Qatar was also removed from the list of demands.

Turkey continues to send military contingent to Qatar and is expected to do so until the end of 2017, he said.

Bayar further added that Turkey's support for Qatar, undoubtedly, affects Ankara's relations with other countries.

It was earlier reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on July 23-24.

“Since Turkey has good relations with Saudi Arabia, the visit of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may facilitate revealing the key points of the Qatar crisis,” said Bayar.

He further said that while Qatar supports the Muslim Brotherhood organization, it is also worth noting that certain statements of this organization cause concern to Qatar itself.

“Like Qatar, Turkey is also concerned over certain actions and statements of the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey had previously demanded that this organization makes some changes to its activities and approaches, but it did not happen,” Bayar said.

“During his visit to Egypt, the current president, then-Prime Minister Erdogan spoke at the Al-Azhar University and urged the Muslim Brotherhood organization to become secular.”

Bayar does not exclude that in the future, Turkey may again request Muslim Brotherhood to become a more secular organization.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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