Erdogan urges cabinet to hide news on ties with Israel

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the senior political and security members of his cabinet to keep secret any news about Ankara's relations and cooperation with Tel Aviv on different issues, including Syria, sources said. "Erdogan had a very important meeting with his cabinet members, including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Interior Minister Muammar Guler, National Defense Minister Ismat Yilmaz, Security Chief Hakan Fydan, Head of the IHH (Turkish Islamic charity known as the Freedom Flotilla) Fahmy Bulent Ildirim and a number of his advisors on September 21," one of the aides present at the meeting told FNA on Tuesday. The source who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of his information added that during the meeting, "Erdogan voiced extreme displeasure with the leak of information about different aspects of Turkey's relations with Israel, and called on all the relevant governmental bodies to keep such news secret and punish those who disobey the order even if they are close people to Erdogan". Other officials attending the meeting also raised the issues which are being pursued by the Turkish and Israeli officials, to be further discussed, the source said, adding that the issues included "cooperation between Israel and Turkey on the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), the Syrian issue, peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel and foiling Armenian lobby's attempts in the US against Turkey as well as consultations between Tel Aviv and Ankara to persuade Washington to wage military attack on Syria". Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs and foreign-backed terrorist groups against not just the Syrian police, border guard and army troops, but also people being reported across the country. Tens of thousands of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed since some protest rallies turned into armed clashes. The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. In October 2011, calm was almost restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US, its Arab allies and Turkey sought hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington, Ankara and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots to topple President Bashar al-Assad, who is well known in the world for his anti-Israeli stances.