24-04-2024 09:20 AM Jerusalem Timing

Turkey PM Wants ’No Permanent Enmity’ with Neighbors

Turkey PM Wants ’No Permanent Enmity’ with Neighbors

New Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said he wants to have no permanent tensions with the country’s neighbors after serious ruptures with Egypt, Zionist entity, Russia and Syria in recent years

Binali Yildirim New Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said he wants to have no permanent tensions with the country's neighbors after serious ruptures with Egypt, Zionist entity, Russia and Syria in recent years, in comments published Friday.

Yildirim, a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in May took over the premiership from Ahmet Davutoglu who had spearheaded a policy of projecting Turkish power in the region.

Some analysts have suggested that Davutoglu made way for Yildirim to allow a more reconciliatory foreign policy that would allow Turkey to mend bridges with its enemies and return to its former dictum of "zero problems" with neighbors.

"Israel, Syria, Russia, Egypt... we cannot have permanent enmity with these countries which border the Black and Mediterranean Seas," Yildirim said in his first major interview with Turkish reporters, quoted by the Hurriyet daily.

On Syria crisis, Turkey has always called for the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad and opposed attempts by Syrian Kurds to carve out an autonomous region.

"The territorial integrity of Syria is important for us," Yildirim said.