Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RlVISTA STAMPA"'DENTRO DE LA PRENSA~BASIN ÖZETi
turkish daily news - August 6,1993
Turkey-Iran: 'Problems can be solved with political will'
26
• Turkish Foreign Ministry undersecretary Is back from Tehran. Security and
transportation continue to be the main problems between Turkey and Iran
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- Turkey and Iran continue
to have problems between them, but they
can be solved with political will, a high
ranking Turkish official said. on Thursday.
Completing his three-day visit. to the
Iranian capital Tehran, r~rkish Foreign
Ministry Undersecretary Ozdem Sanberk
said upon his arrival in Ankara that there
was a need for institutionalizing the dialogue
channels between the two countries.
"Turkey and Iran are two big and old
neighbors in the region. It is natural to
have problems," Sanberk said. "But we
have observed that when our dialogue
channelsdo not work properly, the problems
increase." .
Sanberk said that having different regimes,
ideologies and philosophies should
not cause a problem for Iran and Turkey
to c)operate on issues of common interests.
The undersecretary said-that the main
subject on the agenda for the three days
of political consultation talks between
the two countries was security.
Sanberk said he had forwarded a message
from Turkish President Süleyman
Demirel to his Iranian counterpart Hashemi
Rafsancani, in which Demirel had
asked for Iran's support against terrorism.
Pointing out that Rafsancani did not send
a responding message, but "promised to
give support byall means he had," Sanberk
saId, Rafsancani was particularly in-.
terested in the subject.
Turkey has been complaining for some
time that the militants of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have
been carrying out cross-border attacks
against targets in Turkey from their bases
in Iran andreturning there afterwards.
Sanberk said during his meetings in Tehran
Iranian officials assured him that
using Iranian territory for terrorist activi-
.ties against Turkey would not be permitted.
They complained about similar infiltrations
from Turkey to Iran, mainI}
those by the People's Mujahedin of Iran,
an armed orgamzation outlawed by the
Iranian government.
Sanberk deniedsome Turkish press reports'
that he had given official docu.
ments to the Iraniangovernmenton terrorist
activities against Turkey. He said
such information had been given tolran
before his visit, during an Iranian offici-
al s visit to Ankaia earlier this year. .
. Meanwhile, the Mujahedin issued a.
statement in Paris on Wednesday and
condemned Turkey's "illegitimate agreements
with the Mullah's regime." The organization
claimed that Turkey had promised
Iran to take stricter measures aga.
inst Iranian refugees in Turkey.
Turkey has an estimated number of
more than I million Iranian living temporarily
in the country, mostly dissidents
of the Iranian regime following the ;lamie
revolution in Iran in 1979.
Transportation problems
Undersecretary Sanberk said in additi-