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

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Do we want to turn our backs on
Tehran and seek a conflict or do we
want to maintain neighborly ties with
our eastern neighbor?
Turkey's relation.s with Iran under the late
shah and after the revolution have always
had their ups and downs. Yet, in recent
times the.downs have been more than the '
ups and it is about time the Turkish authorities
got together and ch~ed a realistic course.
The late Turgut Ozal had for~ed warm ties
with the Irani~ leadership despIte his closeness
to the,West and especiapy the United States, the
arch enemy of Tehran. Özal tried hard to mend
, fences between the Iranians and the Americans,
but he could not succeed. On the other hand he
always gave friendly advise to the Americans
not to isolate Iran but try to integrate it into the
: international system. ' .-
At the time no one objected to close ties
between Ankara and Tehran and Turkey's annual
trade volume with this country reached about
2 billion dollars... '
After Öza1, things have never been the same
,and both sides may well share the blame for this.'
Successive Turkish governments under Tansu
ÇilleI' paid little attention to Iran as well as other
Islamic countries. There were a series of setbacks
in the relations and this too affected the
warmth in the relations.
Iran, for its part, failed to curb Kurdish separatists
using its territory to attack Turkish military
outposts on the border and infiltrate into
Turkish soil to attack civilians. '
After Necmettin Erbakan came to power he
set the stage for closer relations with Tehran.
Some felt this was politically motivated yet it
later became apparent that Erbakan was driven
to closer ties with Iran because of economic considerations.
He felt Turkey could boost its
exports by selling goods to Islamic countries .as
our exports to the West had reached a saturatIon
point. He felt Iran, as a neighbor washis best
bet. Erbakan also wanted Iranian natural gas,
which would help to narrow the energy gap in
Turkey. .
The Americans never liked this idea because
it hurt U.S. policy of "containing" Iran, which
Washington says is a state which supports terror~
ism.
~~imnalambassador in Tehran and the consul general in
ilnur Çevik
Turkey signed a multibillion-dollar natural
gas deal which included the construction of a
pipeline between Turkey and Iran and the supply
of Iranian natural gas. The Americans want ,
Turkey to scrap the deal and promise to help to
secure other alternative fuel resources... '
Meanwhile, we have heard conflicting views
aired by various Turkish authorities. The government
says,it wants to enhance Turkey's ties
with Iran and is prepared to go as far as possible
to achi~ve this..However, especially the n:üJitary
and other secunty sources are playmg a different
tune.
Can we afford to escalate the tensions
between the two countries and win
yet another enemy in a region where
we hardly have any friends?
Deputy Chief of Staff General Çevik Bir
called Iran a state which sponsors terrorism, and
said Iran is trying to export anti-secular activity
to Central Asian republics as well as to Turkey
and last, but not least, it is developing mass
destruction weapons and missiles which are a
source of deep concern for Ankara.
The military was already' at odds with Iran
during the recent events in the township of
Sincan near Ankara when some fundamentalist
remarks were made at a gathering to mark
Jerusalem Day and the Iranian'ambassador
strongly attacked Israel. The military sent tanks
through the streets of Sincan as a show of force
and demanded. that the Iranian ambassador be
told to go home. In the end, the ambassador did
go home and the Istanbul consul general of Iran
hit back at Turkish authorities and furor created
over the Sincan gathering and he tociwas sent
home.' ,_
The comments of Çevik Bir angered Iran and
it hit back at Ankara by telling the Turkish
the Iranian city of Orumieh to leave. The Iranian
consul general in the Turkish eastern provincial
center of Erzurum strongly criticized the military
and he too was asked to leave Turkey. Now
Iran will no doubt expel another Turkish diplomat.
There are rumors that the Iranians may ask
the Turkish military attache in Tehran to leave ... '
, So the inciaent in Sincan has blown into a full
scale storm between Iran and Turkey which we
feel is against the vital interests of both sides.
Some people may dislike Iran' s Islamist
regime. Some may talk about historical rivalries
between Iran and Turkey. Yet Iran is there to
'stay as ,our eastern neighbor and a vital gateway
to Central Asia ... It has a potential of creating
much trouble for us in many ways.
If the Iranians are really sheltering the
Kurdish separatists who launch attacks into
Turkey from this country, then we may well see
an escalation of such attacks in the days to
corne ... The consul generals of Iran in Istanbul
and Erzurum were wrong to attack the military
and interfere in our internal politics. According
to diplomatic norms Turkey was left with no
,choice but to expel these people.
However, there is another side of the coin.
Some people knowingly or unknowingly have
contributed to the escalation of tensions between
the two countries without realizing the consequences
to Turkey's vital interests.
Turkey has to get its act together. Do we want
to have good peighborly relations with Iran or
are we turning our backs on them? We cannot
believe that some people will want a conflict
with the Iranians ...
The damage has been done and now is the
time to prevent further escalation of the tensions
between the two countries and do crisis management.
We know that common sense will prevail.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry as well as
President Süleyman Demirel have realized the
, mess that has been created and will try to mend
fences in the days to come provided some people
do not sabotage their efforts in Ankara and in
Tehran ...