<\/p>\n
Erdogan, at the start of a two-day mission, and his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Naji Otri signed the deal, which had been under negotiation for several years. A Turkish diplomatic source said Damascus lifted its reservations to signing the deal "after a certain accord" was reached on Turkey’s sovereignty in the southern province of Hatay, formerly Alexandretta, on which Syria had claims.<\/p>\n The region was ceded to <\/span> "We are in agreement. We want a comprehensive cooperation in the region," said the Syrian premier, adding that Erdogan had agreed to increase the flow of water into <\/span> The free-trade accord is the cornerstone of efforts to boost the newly found friendship between the two former foes, which came to the brink of war only six years ago. Erdogan, whose delegation includes three ministers, among them Foreign Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen, also met Assad and is to visit the northern city of <\/span> <\/span> In 1998, the two countries nearly went to war over <\/span> As a result, Turkish intelligence operatives arrested Ocalan in <\/span> <\/span> Last year, <\/span> 21-12-2004 <\/span> DAMASCUS – AFP Former foes Turkey and Syria signed a free-trade accord and said they had agreed to put their differences behind them during a visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan, at the start of a two-day mission, and his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Naji Otri signed the deal, which had been under …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-turkey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span>Former foes <\/span>
\n"Our links will develop in all fields in the future, especially in trade," Otri said at a joint news conference, while Erdogan said it "shows how far relations have come between the two countries".<\/p>\n
\nBut Otri said "other problems are now forgotten", apparently referring to another key obstacle to a full normalisation in ties: the sharing of the <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nTrade between the two countries amounted to one billion dollars in 2003.
\nThe "new era" in relations began when <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nTensions eased when Damascus expelled Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan from his safe haven in Syria and signed a security deal with Ankara, pledging to stop supporting Ocalan’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).<\/p>\n
\nThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict, war-torn <\/span>
\n\u0722\u0717\u072a\u071d\u0710<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"