Olmert seeks Turkey’s help on spy’s remains

Ehud Olmert is expected to ask Turkey to help seek the remains of an Israeli spy executed by Syria. The Israeli prime minister flew to Ankara on Wednesday for a two-day visit to discuss bilateral economic ties and regional diplomacy. Olmert also is expected to ask Turkey to help retrieve the remains of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy executed in Damascus in 1965. Israeli sources have suggested that such a gesture by Syrian President Bashar Assad could add weight to his recent peace overtures toward Jerusalem, which Olmert has rejected as not serious.Turkey, a secular Muslim country led by a party with Islamist roots, maintains good ties with Israel and the Arab world, which it says would make it a good peace mediator. However, Turkey regularly joins Arab denunciations of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.