Haber Türk: “Israel out, Syria in,” was the headline of the daily's lead story yesterday, which said the cancellation of this week's NATO air force exercises in Turkey coincided with Turkey's decision to engage in strategic cooperation with Syria. The last-minute cancellation of the exercise spurred the Israeli side to claim that Turkey wanted to exclude its air force from taking part in the drill. Turkey and Syria signed a deal on Tuesday which foresees joint aerial military exercises between the two countries. When asked whether Turkey was afraid of Israeli lobbies' reactions over the deal with Syria, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said: “We pay importance to friendly relations with our neighbors, but we also show our reactions to wrong policies just as we did before [during Israel's war on Gaza]. Bugün: The daily's major story yesterday covered the elimination of visa requirements between Turkey and Syria with a ceremony held on Tuesday. History was written on Tuesday on the Turkish-Syrian border. Twenty ministers from both countries gathered in Aleppo, and they crossed the Turkish border on foot. On the partnership with Syria, Davutoğlu said, “Common history, common fate, common future.” The lifting of visa requirements is only one aspect of a planned multidimensional bilateral relationship between Syria and Turkey, the final goal of which was described at the time by Davutoğlu as “maximum integration.”
Taraf: “Bahçeli is the same as the [Armenian] diaspora,” read the headline of the daily's main story yesterday, which criticized Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli over his critical remarks concerning an agreement signed between Turkey and Armenia to establish diplomatic relations and open borders. Speaking at his party's parliamentary group meeting, Bahçeli accused the government of committing treason. Bahçeli described the protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia as “humiliating,” just as the Armenian diaspora accused Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan of betraying the interests of his country with the deal signed with Turkey, the daily wrote.
