Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arriving in the Kingdom Monday. JEDDAH – King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is scheduled to hold talks Monday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on relations between Riyadh and Ankara and developments in the Arab world. King Abdullah and Erdogan, who last week was awarded the King Faisal International Prize for services to Islam, are expected to look at the Mideast peace process and the situation in Palestine as well as broader international issues. Erdogan also plans to meet the secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) at its headquarters in Jeddah Wednesday for discussions on Islamic issues, and will perform Umra in the company of his delegation of ministers. The Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ahmad Dawoud Oglo, told Okaz that the Kingdom and Turkey were both working to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East and realize Palestinian national unity. “Turkey wants to bring a comprehensive and just peace to the Middle East and revive the peace process,” Oglo said. “Turkey wants a larger positive role in the Mideast and to open relations with the West,” he said. “It has a strong foreign policy vision towards the Middle East but does not seek to exert control but only create a secure and stable Middle East, as it's Turkey's policy to find solutions to crises before they deteriorate further.” Oglo said that Turkey would play any part in settling differences in the region or the rest of the world, and urged Israel to find positive ways to deal with peace efforts in the region, saying that “a positive Israeli program would be in Israel's own interests.” Oglo also spoke of his recent visit to Jeddah to meet with the secretary general of the OIC in which they discussed the organization's relations with Turkey and its activities, “particularly in areas of diplomacy and the protection of human rights.” “Turkish diplomacy works calmly and with flexibility to meet the developments of the region,” said Oglo. “Each region or continent has its own politics and discourse and ways of handling issues. Turkey's policy is for Ankara to be a positive contributing element in regional, Arab and international interaction.” “Ankara's new efforts focus on supporting and improving relations with each individual Arab country,” Oglo said.
