Turkish mediation efforts underway to solve Bahrain crisis

April 6, 2011 - 0:0

TEHRAN -- Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu travelled to Bahrain on Tuesday in an effort to help resolve the worsening political crisis in the country.

The news of Davutoglu’s visit to Manama was announced after the meeting of Turkish Council of Ministers in Ankara on Monday.
Before the trip, Davutoglu held a telephonic conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, on the ongoing developments in Bahrain.
Salehi and Davutoglu highlighted the importance of bilateral consultation in order to find a solution to the Bahrain crisis and help the people of this archipelago nation achieve their demands for reforms without the foreign interference.
Their conversation also involved the latest situation on the ground in other Arab countries.
Davutoglu is scheduled to hold talks with Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed bin Muhammad Al Khalifa as well as a number of other Bahraini officials and representatives of some political parties.
Iran and Turkey have great potential to mediate between the governments and the opposition groups of the Middle Eastern countries which have been rocked by popular uprisings, particularly Bahrain.
Iran and Turkey play complementary roles in resolving the issues facing the region and their cooperation would promote peace and security in the Middle East.
Now that Tehran and Ankara have expressed their readiness to help settle the problems of regional countries, the situation is ready for the mediation efforts to be launched.
On March 21, Bahraini foreign minister met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu in Ankara.
In his meeting with the Bahraini foreign minister, Davutoglu voiced concern over the bloody unrest in the country and emphasized that Manama officials must not let Bahrain turn into another Karbala.
In addition, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, during Erdogan’s recent visit to the Iraqi city of Najaf, urged him to take measures to help end the massacre of the Bahraini civilians.
Bahrain is now in the 51st consecutive day of anti-government protests and Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in this country has drawn strong criticism worldwide.
Regime mutilates slain protesters’ bodies
Manama regime and Saudi-led forces in Bahrain remove the body organs of those killed in anti-government protests, a political observer says.
“The bodies of the youths, who are being taken out of hospitals and killed, are being returned to their families with their organs missing,” Ralph Schoenman, the author of The Hiddedn History of Zionism told Press TV.
“That's a replica of what the Israeli armed forces were doing in Gaza and other place with Palestinian prisoners -- marketing their organs,” he pointed out.
“It's a measure of the nature of the regime in Bahrain, and it's a measure of the politics of Saudi dictatorship,” Schoenman added.
Furthermore, Riyadh and Manama regimes subject Bahrainis to other “barbaric” crimes such as killing doctors and surgeons and seizing hospitals, he said.
Bahrain under siege, occupation
A Bahraini opposition leader has lashed out at the excessive use of force against anti-regime protests, slamming the kingdom's oppressive policies.
“The people are under siege, under occupation. The regime has intensified its atrocious act
[s],” Saeed al-Shahabi from the London-based opposition group of Bahrain Freedom Movement told Press TV on Monday.
More than 25 people have been killed from the government-authorized violence in Bahrain since February 14, when the public started a popular revolution against the monarchy, which has been ruling the Persian Gulf island for more than 200 years.
In March, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait deployed their troops to Bahrain to reinforce the armed attacks.
Shahabi said 3,000 people have also sustained injuries in the brutal crackdown.
“The (number of the) people, who have been taken into custody, over the past two weeks is now between 450 and 500, including senior figures and senior scholars,” he added, noting among the detainees were people more than 60 in age and, off course, some of them are less than 15.
“What we are witnessing is a real human tragedy unfolding by the day and it is not ending in any sense,” the opposition leader regretted.
“Instead of calming situation, these people, these raiders, these attackers, these occupiers are only fueling the sentiment and fueling the anger of the people and that's why we also see continuous opposition to regime,” Shahabi went on to say.
Opposition sources say they have evidence showing Saudi forces are involved in the suppression of anti-monarchy Bahrainis.
They say the soldiers wore masks, but their accent was recognizable.
Shedding more light on the forces' heavy-handed treatment of the people was a recently-surfaced footage which showed the police repeatedly beating up a handcuffed protester in the northern village of Daih.
“I really don't know how our regime wants to be respected by their own people, when they see these images in (sic) the daily basis,” said Nabeel Rajab, the president of Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said, referring to the video.
The brutality transpiring on the streets of the kingdom is “much more than what you see” in the footage, Rajab said in an interview with Press TV.