President Abdullah Gül has urged Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, to work to end the human tragedy in the Darfur region.

Bashir is in İstanbul on his first trip abroad since ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last month asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for him on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, saying his state apparatus had killed 35,000 people and indirectly at least another 100,000.

Bashir’s visit overshadowed a Turkish-African summit that brought together leaders from African Union nations and Turkey to discuss ways to expand cooperation in economic areas.

In a half-hour meeting with Bashir on the sidelines of the Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit, Gül said the “human drama” in Darfur saddened Turkey, irrespective of the language, religion or race of the people made to suffer. “Everyone should do their part to end the suffering in Darfur. You should do your part as well,” Gül told the Sudanese leader, sources close to the meeting told Today’s Zaman.

Bashir, on the other hand, denied responsibility for the events in Darfur and committing genocide and insisted that he was doing all he could for the wellbeing of his people. Gül and Bashir did not discuss the ICC or the case against Bashir, who does not accept the legitimacy of the court. Bashir also said he was saddened by the events in Darfur, according to the same sources.

NATO member Turkey has not ratified the treaty forming the ICC but is under pressure to become a member as part of negotiations to join the European Union. ICC judges could take weeks or months to issue a warrant but have never failed to issue one after a prosecutor’s request.

African and Arab states are pushing for the suspension of moves by the court to indict Bashir and say they could hamper efforts to bring peace to Darfur.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in Darfur since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing the central government in Khartoum of neglect.

Gül and Bashir also discussed bilateral relations. Turkey, which wants to expand its investments and explore for oil, conveyed these requests to the Sudanese side during the meeting and asked Sudan to give priority to Turkish investors in oil fields, sources also said.

This is the second time Bashir has visited Turkey this year. In January, he paid his first visit, during which he dismissed genocide charges.

Target for trade with Africa: $30 billion

Though overshadowed by international concerns over Bashir’s visit, the Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit is a landmark step in expanding ties between Turkey and the African continent.

Fifty member-states of the 53-nation African Union are being represented at the Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit, which will end on Thursday. Six African countries are represented at the level of heads of state, while five of them are represented by vice presidents, six by heads of government, one by deputy head of government and the rest by either their foreign minister or some other senior-level official. Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho are the three countries which are not represented at the summit due to a meeting in South Africa, diplomatic sources said.

Eager to solidify cooperation with Africa, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told participating leaders during a luncheon yesterday that ties are to strengthen further as Turkey plans to open 15 new embassies in African countries in the coming years and to increase aid to Africa.

Annual aid for Africa, including that provided by the private sector, rose to $1.7 billion last year, and this will further increase in the coming years, Erdoğan said. Trade volume, which grew from $5 billion in 2003 to the current $12 billion, will further grow to $30 billion by 2010, Erdoğan noted. “When Africa is sad, Turkey is sad. When Africa is happy, Turkey is happy,” said the prime minister, condemning a bomb attack in Algeria yesterday that killed 43 people and wounded 38.

Turkey, which has signed liquefied gas agreements with Algeria, is seeking to boost investment and trade with sub-Saharan Africa, following similar moves by emerging powerhouses China and India.

Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, also praised Turkey as “an important player in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.” He told the Anatolia news agency on the sidelines of the summit that “cooperation between Turkey and Africa is a necessity historically, geographically, politically and culturally.”

He also stated that foreigners should view Africa as a land of opportunity, not of problems. “The population of the continent is expected to stand at 1.4 billion by 2020, a market which you cannot afford to ignore,” the commission chairman said.

In addition to trade and energy, Turkey also looks to the African continent for support in its bid to secure a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council in 2009-2010. Erdoğan vowed in his speech that Turkey would pay special attention to African concerns if it is confirmed as a non-permanent member in the election, which is due in October.

Flurry of diplomacy

Both Erdoğan and Gül yesterday met with senior African leaders on the sidelines of the cooperation summit, which opened on Monday.

Gul met with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who is also in İstanbul for the summit, early in the morning. He later separately received Somali Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Jama, Zambian Minister of Local Government and Housing Sylvia T. Masebo, Guinea-Bissau Minister of Foreign Affairs Maria da Conceicao Nobre Cabral, Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ojo Maduekwe, Benin Foreign Minister Issifau Kogui N’Douro, Sierra Leone Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana, Congolese State Minister Pierre Moussa, Zimbabwe UN permanent representative Boniface Chidyousiku, Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat, Angolan Foreign Minister Jose Pedro de Morais, Gambian Foreign Minister Omar Touray and Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Abd Alsalam al-Triki.

Erdoğan’s meetings included those with Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi, Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza, Togolese Prime Minister Komlan Mally and Ugandan Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi.

Todays Zaman