Foreign ministers of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states designated on Thursday, the FETO group, led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, a “terrorist organization”, reported Anadolu News Agency.
The decision was announced at a GCC-organized meeting in Riyadh attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and in which Gulf States stressed their support for the Turkish government’s recent moves against the group.
According to Anadolu Agency, the joint announcement also called for the adoption of new strategies aimed at fighting terrorism emanating from pseudo-religious “cults” such as Fetullah Terrorist organization and Daesh terrorist group in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
Furthermore, The turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu arrived in Saudi Arabia and met with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh on Thursday prior to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting
New Era for the Gulf-Turkish relations
During that recent meeting in Riyadh, in which Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, took part in, Gulf foreign ministers also stressed their support for Turkey’s stability under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
These actions and announcements show a new era in the relations between Turkish and Gulf countries under the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s policies.
SEMİH İDİZ, a turkish writer, said that Turkey is clinging now to reinforce relationship with Saudi Arabia, in an effort to break out of the international isolation.
“Turkey’s silence in the face of Saudi atrocities in Yemen is also telling. This shows that the government is trying to be a little more realistic with regard to Turkey’s interest,” wrote Semih Idiz in his recent column titled “Is Turkey moving towards regional isolation again?” in Hurriyet Daily News.
Also, on October 12th., Saudi oil company Aramco signed a series of Memorandum of Understanding with 18 Turkish industrial enterprises, in order to add new potential partners to the company’s slate of future capital projects, promoting diversification and infrastructure enhancement in support of Saudi Vision 2030.
On the other hand, the foreign minister of Turkey condemned as a terrorist act the recent attack on the United Arab Emirates civilian vessel Swift near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait off the Yemeni coast while it was delivering humanitarian aid and evacuating wounded Yemenis for treatment in the UAE.
It is noteworthy that recent media reports said that the Foreign Minister of UAE will visit Turkey on Sunday 16 October.
