Turkey hopes for early solution to Qatari crisis

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

The Gulf rift appeared to put long-term partnerships and alliances to the test, while also revealing Turkey as the main supporter of Qatar in the recently emerged crisis.

Since the first day of the crisis, Turkey has been trying with all its efforts to settle the conflict, said Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesperson for the Turkish president.

Kalin said that Ankara hopes for an early solution to the Qatari crisis, Turkish media reported.

"The Qatari crisis for Turkey is a crisis between fraternal states," he said.

Several Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing the latter of supporting ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other terrorists and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East. They were later joined by Libya, Yemen, the Maldives, Mauritius and Mauritania, with Jordan and Djibouti announcing they would lower the level of diplomatic contacts with Qatar. Senegal and Chad recalled their ambassadors from Doha.

Doha denied allegations over its support to terrorism and extremism adding that the diplomatic rift was based on "baseless fabricated claims."

Turkey and Iran have been providing food and water supplies to Qatar. Moreover, Turkey has declared its full support to Qatar by adopting a bill on deploying Turkish troops in the country.

Turkey plays an important role and enjoys authority in the Islamic world and taking advantage of this, Ankara intends to resolve the Qatari crisis.

Ankara, in a bid to settle the rift among Arab countries, held a number of negations, while Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held several meetings with leaders and ambassadors of certain Arab countries to resolve the situation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously called for an early settlement of this crisis and stated that the confrontation does not fit the Islamic world, and all issues can be resolved through dialogue.

In this regard, Erdogan drew attention to the position of Saudi Arabia calling Riyadh "the key to solving the current crisis in the Persian Gulf."