Davutoglu travels to Syria in the same week that relations with Israel are at an all-time low

Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, travels to the Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday for the first meeting of a newly established strategic council, accompanied by 10 cabinet members, ready to sign agreements that end visa requirements.

At the same time Ankara's relations with Israel have deteriorated significantly.

Ten years ago, Ankara accused its southern neighbour of providing support to the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and tension at the borders led to increased troop deployments.

Now, Walid al-Moallem, Syria's foreign minister, has welcomed a new chapter in relations on the eve of convening the Syrian-Turkish strategic council.

"One week ago, Syria and Turkey carried out manoeuvres near Ankara ... this is important because it refutes reports of poor relations between the military and political institutes in Turkey over its strategic relations with Syria," he said.

Military relations developed for the first time earlier this year, causing Israeli media to question arms sales to Turkey, a Nato member.

Israeli-Turkish ties

In a new episode in the worsening ties between the two countries, Turkey called on Israel to show restraint in its reactions to the scrapping of the annual air exercise Anatolian Eagle.

The Turkish military said last week the international deployment at the war games exercise, carried out annually since 2001 in central Turkey, had been postponed.

But the Israeli military said the exercises were scrapped because Ankara excluded Israel, a decision which the Haaretz daily said prompted the US to pull out from the drills.

The Turkish foreign ministry said it was "not right to make political conclusions out of the postponement of the exercises".

"Assessments and comments attributed to Israeli officials in the press are unacceptable. We invite Israeli officials to [use] common sense in their statements and attitudes," a statement said.

Arms sales review

Israeli media have quoted anonymous officials as saying that the sale of advanced arms to Turkey would be reviewed.
 
However, Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, has cautioned against blowing the incident out of proportion.

"The relations between Israel and Turkey are strategic, stretching back dozens of years," Barak said, according to a statement from his office.

"Despite all the ups and downs, Turkey continues to be a central actor in our region. There is no need to be drawn into hostile statements about them."

Once flourishing Turkish-Israeli ties took a sharp downturn in January when the government in Ankara criticised Israel for its December-January assault on the Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas.

On January 29, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, stormed out  from a debate on the Gaza war in Davos, Switzerland, after accusing  Israel of barbarian acts and telling Shimon  Peres, the Israeli president, sitting next to him, that "you know well how to kill people".

Gaza connection

The Gaza offensive also led to the disruption of indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria that Turkey had mediated since May 2008.

Davutoglu signalled on Sunday that the Gaza offensive - which killed hundreds of civilians besides Hamas members - and ongoing turmoil in the Palestinian enclave contributed to Turkey's decision to exclude Israel from the drills.

"In the existing situation, of course, we are criticising this approach, the Israeli approach," he told CNN on Monday.

In September, Davutoglu reportedly cancelled plans to visit Israel after he was denied permission to visit Gaza.

Turkey has been Israel's chief regional ally since the two signed a military co-operation deal in 1996.

However, Ankara also has close ties with the Palestinians and supports their struggle for statehood.

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