June 05, 2017•Update: June 05, 2017
By Sorwar Alam
ANKARA
Ankara wants a peaceful solution to the diplomatic rift between five Arab states and Qatar, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Egypt announced Monday that they were cutting off all diplomatic relations with Qatar, citing national security concerns.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Ankara with his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel, Cavusoglu said that Turkey was ready to help however it can to bring the disputes to a manageable level.
"Dialogue should be continued under all circumstances so the existing problems can be solved in a peaceful way," he said.
He expressed Turkey's "sadness" at the decisions to cut off ties, citing the importance of regional unity and solidarity.
"Turkey sees the unity and solitary among Gulf states as its own unity," he said.
Unity among the countries of the region is important for fighting Daesh, radicalism, Islamophobia, and sectarianism, he added.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Ministry also issued a statement, calling for regional solidarity.
"Turkey, as the responsible actor in the region and the current head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, is ready to make any effort possible to resolve the issue among friend and brotherly countries in a very short period of time," the statement read.
The ministry said the Gulf Cooperation Council had been playing a significant role for the security and stability in the region and called on its member states to resolve the issue through dialogue.
“It should not be forgotten that regional threats, including fight against terrorism, can only carry out through unity and solidarity," it said.
Speaking at a news conference following a Cabinet meeting later on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Turkey was ready to fulfill its responsibilities to solve the problem.
"It seems to be a major crisis and it needs to be solved without getting worse. There is no room for any more tension in the region, in the Middle East," he said.
"Turkey will fulfill all its responsibilities to solve this problem. Keeping the channels of diplomacy open is the main issue. In this regard, we are making efforts to keep the diplomatic channels open while remaining in contact with Qatar."
Kurtulmus added that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had made some phone calls to solve the diplomatic row between Qatar and several other countries.
"Our President, as the current head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, got actively involved in this [Qatar row] by having phone calls with both some Islamic countries and some Western countries, to resolve the issue," he said.
