ANKARA (Reuters) – A Turkish lawyer said on Thursday that Israel had offered to pay $6 million to victims of Israel’s storming of a Gaza-bound Turkish aid flotilla to settle lawsuits against the Israeli military.

However, a senior Israeli official who declined to be named said that Israel, having indicated last year that it was prepared to indemnify victims without accepting blame, had not renewed its offer.

Turkey and Israel fell out badly in 2010 when Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara aid ship to enforce a naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip and killed nine Turks in clashes with activists.

Ramazan Ariturk, one of several lawyers representing 465 victims and victims’ relatives, told Reuters that the Israeli government had made a proposal to him through an intermediary foreign ambassador in Ankara just over one month ago.

He said the money would have been paid to a Jewish foundation in Turkey for distribution, and been followed by a statement of “regret” for the raid by the Israeli government.

“I told the ambassador I did not think the offer was appropriate or moral and also discussed the issue with the victims and their friends and they also stated that they could not accept this,” Ariturk said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry agreed with his decision, saying Israel should have contacted it directly, he said.

ANKARA (Reuters) – A bitter rift with Iraq has exposed Turkey’s role in a wider Middle East power struggle, with Ankara acting to protect its stability and prosperity from an Iranian-Iraqi “Shi’ite axis” it fears in the wake of the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.

Turkey, a Sunni Muslim but secular regional power bordering Iraq, Iran and Syria, long tried to play regional mediator as Shi’ite Muslim giant Iran and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia jostled for sway in a region now undergoing political upheaval.

But the fall-out wrought by Arab Spring uprisings and the U.S. exit from Iraq have forced Turkey to make tricky adjustments by cutting old alliances and forming new ones, jettisoning its “zero problems with the neighbours” policy.

That shift, coupled with a more aggressive diplomacy personified by an increasingly combative Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan – has thrust Turkey into a regional strategic game pitting Gulf Arab states and Ankara against Iran.

“What is really critical is the American withdrawal from Iraq, because that basically made Iraq a much more open playing field for the Iranians,” said Soli Ozel, a prominent Turkish academic and commentator.

“Inexorably, perhaps unwillingly, Turkey began to find itself a part of the sectarian games as opposed to the position that it very delicately tried to preserve which was being above sectarianism.”

Turkish officials have been waging a war of words with Baghdad since December when Shi’ite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, based on allegations that he ran death squads.

ANKARA (Reuters) – A bitter rift with Iraq has exposed Turkey’s role in a wider Middle East power struggle, with Ankara acting to protect its stability and prosperity from an Iranian-Iraqi “Shi’ite axis” it fears in the wake of the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.

Turkey, a Sunni Muslim but secular regional power bordering Iraq, Iran and Syria, long tried to play regional mediator as Shi’ite Muslim giant Iran and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia jostled for sway in a region now undergoing political upheaval.

But the fall-out wrought by Arab Spring uprisings and the U.S. exit from Iraq have forced Turkey to make tricky adjustments by cutting old alliances and forming new ones, jettisoning its “zero problems with the neighbors” policy.

That shift, coupled with a more aggressive diplomacy personified by an increasingly combative Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan – has thrust Turkey into a regional strategic game pitting Gulf Arab states and Ankara against Iran.

“What is really critical is the American withdrawal from Iraq, because that basically made Iraq a much more open playing field for the Iranians,” said Soli Ozel, a prominent Turkish academic and commentator.

“Inexorably, perhaps unwillingly, Turkey began to find itself a part of the sectarian games as opposed to the position that it very delicately tried to preserve which was being above sectarianism.”

Turkish officials have been waging a war of words with Baghdad since December when Shi’ite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, based on allegations that he ran death squads.

HATAY, Turkey (Reuters) – With thousands of refugees now taking shelter in Hatay after fleeing violence just across the border in their Syrian homeland, Turkey’s panhandle province has been in the news over the past year for all the wrong reasons.

But spend a couple of days exploring this fascinating subculture of Turkey and you will discover an area steeped in ancient history, hospitality and tolerance – Jews; Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians; Sunni, Shi’ite and Alevi Muslims all worship here in virtual harmony.

Home to the ancient cities of Alexandretta or modern-day Iskenderun, the Mediterranean port where the whale is said to have spat out the prophet Jonah; and Antioch or modern-day Antakya, once the Roman Empire’s third-most important city where St. Paul preached his first sermons and where Christians were first called Christians, Hatay is a lesson in Biblical history.

But most modern Turks come here for another reason: to eat. Once a part of Syria, Hatay has been blessed with its own rich cuisine that draws inspiration from northern Africa to the Middle East to Central Asia.

So with several airlines now operating daily flights to Hatay from Istanbul and Ankara, it’s time to dust off the history books and put those diets on hold and discover one of Turkey’s most well-kept secrets far off the beaten track.

FRIDAY

8 p.m. – Check in to The Liwan, a 1920s French colonial-style mansion typical of Hatay’s main city Antakya that has now been beautifully restored into a boutique hotel. Built for the first president of the French Mandate of Syria, The Liwan boasts crystal chandeliers, carved wooden bed frames and velvet chairs that give a glimpse of what Antakya life was like in the 1920s. (www.theliwanhotel.com)

HATAY, Turkey (Reuters) – With thousands of refugees now taking shelter in Hatay after fleeing violence just across the border in their Syrian homeland, Turkey’s panhandle province has been in the news over the past year for all the wrong reasons.

But spend a couple of days exploring this fascinating subculture of Turkey and you will discover an area steeped in ancient history, hospitality and tolerance – Jews; Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians; Sunni, Shi’ite and Alevi Muslims all worship here in virtual harmony.

Home to the ancient cities of Alexandretta or modern-day Iskenderun, the Mediterranean port where the whale is said to have spat out the prophet Jonah; and Antioch or modern-day Antakya, once the Roman Empire’s third-most important city where St. Paul preached his first sermons and where Christians were first called Christians, Hatay is a lesson in Biblical history.

But most modern Turks come here for another reason: to eat. Once a part of Syria, Hatay has been blessed with its own rich cuisine that draws inspiration from northern Africa to the Middle East to Central Asia.

So with several airlines now operating daily flights to Hatay from Istanbul and Ankara, it’s time to dust off the history books and put those diets on hold and discover one of Turkey’s most well-kept secrets far off the beaten track.

FRIDAY

8 p.m. – Check in to The Liwan, a 1920s French colonial-style mansion typical of Hatay’s main city Antakya that has now been beautifully restored into a boutique hotel. Built for the first president of the French Mandate of Syria, The Liwan boasts crystal chandeliers, carved wooden bed frames and velvet chairs that give a glimpse of what Antakya life was like in the 1920s. (www.theliwanhotel.com)

ANKARA (Reuters) – The European Union has lost appeal for the Turkish people after years of stagnation in Ankara’s accession talks but a new “positive agenda” launched on Thursday will aim to revive the process, the bloc’s enlargement chief said on Thursday.

Formal entry negotiations began in 2005 but the process has ground to a virtual halt in recent years, blocked by an intractable dispute over the divided island of Cyprus and opposition from core EU members France and Germany.

“The fact of the matter is that we have lost the public support here in Turkey and also in the European Union. It is a reflection of our inability over the last years to open any chapters,” said EU enlargement chief Stefan Fuele.

Turkey failed last year to open even one new chapter, or policy area, of the 35 where a candidate country must complete negotiations before it can join the EU. It has only managed to open 13 chapters since talks started, with most of the rest “frozen” by political rows between Ankara and EU capitals.

In a bid to kick-start the flagging negotiations, Fuele and Turkish Minister for European Affairs Egemen Bagis announced the start of a “positive agenda” at a conference in Ankara.

The initiative, which will create “working groups” devoted to individual chapters with the goal of speeding up efforts to align Turkish policy with EU legislation, will not replace the existing process but would support it, Fuele said.

“The positive agenda should bring fresh dynamics and new momentum in our relations. Our aim is to keep the accession process alive … after a period of stagnation which has been a source of frustration for both sides,” Fuele said.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday the violence in Syria should not be viewed as a sectarian or ethnic conflict, and those who did so risked setting the whole region on fire.

In an apparent reference to Shi’ite Iran, Ankara’s main rival in the region and closest ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Erdogan called on Shi’ites to see the conflict in Syria only through “brotherly eyes”.

Majority-Sunni Turkey, which shares a 900-km (550-mile) long border with Syria, fears the internal conflict could develop into sectarian and ethnic fighting that could spill across borders, pitting Shi’ite Muslims against Sunnis.

Referring to clashes this week between Alawite Assad supporters and Sunni Muslims that killed five people and wounded more than 70 in Lebanon, Erdogan said he wanted to send an “important reminder” to the region and the world.

“Viewing the crisis in Syria as a sectarian conflict is absolutely wrong. Whoever views these events through a sectarian window, through an ethnic or ideological window, and whoever adopts an according attitude, is committing a big wrong,” Erdogan said.

“This kind of outlook is like walking towards a fire with a bellows and, God forbid, turning the spark in the region … into a large fire,” Erdogan told a weekly parliamentary meeting of his ruling AK Party.

APPEAL TO SHI’ITES

OVAKENT, Turkey (Reuters) – When Abdul Maraf Yildiz looks at the thousands of Syrian refugees flooding across the border into southern Turkey, he sees himself, 30 years ago.

Yildiz was only two in 1982 when his family fled the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and found sanctuary in Hatay, the Turkish province that has become a magnet for Syrians escaping President Bashar al-Assad’s repression.

“You know that feeling when you watch a film for the second time? This time the Syrians are the actors and we are watching the film. We have experienced the same things,” Yildiz told Reuters in the village of Ovakent, just a few km (two miles) from Hatay’s airport.

“We lived in refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran. Then we came to Turkey and found peace. They will face far less problems than us because they are in Turkey,” he said.

Three years after Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan, the Turkish government flew some 170 Afghan families from refugee camps in Pakistan to Turkey, a fraction of the millions of Afghans who fled the occupation.

As most of these families were ethnic Uzbek and Turkmen, the move was seen as a humanitarian gesture by Turkey to help its Turkic brothers in a time of need. The families were settled in Ovakent, then nothing more than a poor, tiny settlement. Friends and relatives gravitated there later.

The Afghans were granted Turkish citizenship and three decades later, Ovakent has grown into a large village of several thousand people.

OVAKENT, Turkey (Reuters) – When Abdul Maraf Yildiz looks at the thousands of Syrian refugees flooding across the border into southern Turkey, he sees himself, 30 years ago.

Yildiz was only two in 1982 when his family fled the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and found sanctuary in Hatay, the Turkish province that has become a magnet for Syrians escaping President Bashar al-Assad’s repression.

“You know that feeling when you watch a film for the second time? This time the Syrians are the actors and we are watching the film. We have experienced the same things,” Yildiz told Reuters in the village of Ovakent, just a few km (two miles) from Hatay’s airport.

“We lived in refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran. Then we came to Turkey and found peace. They will face far less problems than us because they are in Turkey,” he said.

Three years after Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan, the Turkish government flew some 170 Afghan families from refugee camps in Pakistan to Turkey, a fraction of the millions of Afghans who fled the occupation.

As most of these families were ethnic Uzbek and Turkmen, the move was seen as a humanitarian gesture by Turkey to help its Turkic brothers in a time of need. The families were settled in Ovakent, then nothing more than a poor, tiny settlement. Friends and relatives gravitated there later.

The Afghans were granted Turkish citizenship and three decades later, Ovakent has grown into a large village of several thousand people.

ANKARA, April 30 (Reuters) – Turkey’s cabinet has given approval for Turkey’s state-run oil firm to carry out oil and gas exploration in six offshore areas around the island of Cyprus, drawing condemnation from the Cypriot government which lays claim to the territory.

The move could escalate an ongoing row between Turkey and the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus over who has the right to tap hydrocarbon deposits in the eastern Mediterranean.

Approval was given for the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) to explore in six areas in Cypriot waters to the north, west and east of the island, according to Turkey’s official gazette.

The gazette did not specify the exact coordinates of the areas, but said they were outside Turkish waters – three areas off Turkey’s southern coast of Adana, one off Antalya, one off Hatay and another off the southwestern coast of Mugla.

The Cypriot government condemned the announcement, saying the areas were within its own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

“The decision by Turkey to grant oil licences in areas which come under the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus are a continuation of her actions which violate international law, and, specifically, the law of the sea,” government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said.

“The government of the Republic of Cyprus condemns these actions and the provocations of Turkey and is taking all indicative action to defend the country’s sovereign rights,” he said in a written statement.