Bashir, who in March became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC at The Hague, is among heads of state and government that İstanbul will host for an economic summit during the Organization of the Islamic Conference's (OIC) 25th session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC). He announced Monday his plans to participate in the summit. “There was no diplomatic note of protest delivered by EU officials to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, as suggested in some news reports,” Turkish diplomatic sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Today's Zaman on Friday.
Swedish Embassy Chargé D’affaires Urban Andersson, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, visited the Foreign Ministry in order to convey Brussels’ concerns over Bashir’s probable participation in the COMCEC.
“The EU has basically objected to Bashir’s invitation to Turkey and in response, we have reiterated our position concerning the issue,” the same diplomatic sources told Today’s Zaman, recalling that Turkey was not a party to the 2002 Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and is thus not bound by the court’s ruling calling for his arrest. A UN Security Council resolution regarding the matter also does not contain language strong enough to create a compelling legal obligation for UN members to cooperate with the ICC in all the steps that it would take in the Darfur situation, Turkish diplomats also told Andersson.
Meanwhile, during a visit to the eastern province of Elazığ on Friday, when reminded of the issue, President Abdullah Gül, the host of the summit and a former foreign minister, underlined that Bashir would not come to Turkey for a bilateral visit.
“These are multilateral visits, everyone is visiting [Turkey] as a member of an international organization. Therefore, everyone should see it this way and should act with this understanding,” Gül was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency in an apparent reference to the EU’s uneasiness over the expected visit.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, in response to a question during a joint press conference following talks with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, also underlined that Turkey was not the event organizer but was hosting it as it was the term president of the OIC, the actual organizer of the event at which Bashir’s presence was expected.
“This means invitations are conveyed by Turkey. How these [invitations] will be responded to will be seen in time. Any limiting attitude vis-à-vis any leader from now by Turkey is out of question both within the OIC and in any other international organization. But when participants become clear, public opinion will also see this,” Davutoğlu said.
Turkey, a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council, has paid heed to objections of African and Arab nations, which fear the court ruling will destabilize the whole region, bring even more conflict to Darfur and threaten the fragile peace deal that ended decades of civil war between northern and southern Sudan. Diplomatic sources earlier told Today’s Zaman that Ankara was taking into account both the legal dimension as well as the political and practical implications that the implementation of the ICC ruling would create.
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