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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Basm Ozeti
Ankara's priority: better ties with neighbors
• New Iranian envoy to arrive by Friday
• Senior Turkish official: 'We had to initiate dialogue with Syria, especially at a time during which
unexpected developments regarding northern Iraq were taking place'
SAADETORUC
4 March 1998,Copyri~ht @ Turkish Daily News
Ankara - Turkish Daily News
In order to improve relations with neighboring states ~nd Arab friends, ~e Turkish Fo~eign.Ministry is
now spending most of its energy on a new Turkish pohcy towards the MIddle East and ItS neIghbors.
Djelaleddin Namini, charge d'affaires at the Iranian Emb~ssy in Ank~ra, was invited. to !he Foreign Ministry
on Tuesday to be informed once again about that new pohcy. Te~an ISexpecte~ to gIve l~ response to .
Turkish proposals regarding Iraq and its neighbors for the estabhshment of regIOnal secunty and economIC
cooperation.
Turkey presented the details of its peace initiative, which gained urgency with the crisis in Iraq, to Iraq's
neighbors in a series of official meetings.
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Korkmaz Haktanir briefed Iran about Turkey's new project for regional
cooperation, while Aykut Cetirge of the ministry discusse~ the is.sue with Damascus. Forei~n ~inister .
Ismail Cern visited Iraq and Jordan and will travel to SaudI ArabIa as a follow-up to that mISSIon.Two mam
priorities of that plan are the U.N. embargo on Iraq and the territorial integrity of Iraq.
The Turkish initiative consists of the following components:
- An arrangement for Iraq and all its neighbors for regional security and cooperation comprising confidence
and security-building measures and not excluding an institutionalized framework;
- An initiative aiming at establishing a zone free of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems
in the Middle East as envisaged in U.N. Security Council resolutions 687 and the Jordan-Israeli peace treaty
of 1994;
- Support for efforts which would facilitate the lifting of all economic sanctions on the Iraqi people; and
- A sequential plan which would assure the security of the entire Iraqi population and enable Iraq to exercise
its sovereignty over its territory.
New Iranian envoy
Meanwhile, the new Iranian ambassador, Hussein Levasani, will be in Ankara by March 6, diplomatic
sources told the TON. Sencar Ozsoy, the new Turkish ambassador, arrived in Tehran late Monday.
Since February 1997, Turkish-Iranian diplomatic relations have gone through a shaky period following a
speech by former Iranian envoy Muhammed Reza Bagheri at a special occasion organized by the Bekir
Yildiz, the mayor of Ankara's Sincan district. Both countries expelled each other's envoys from their
respective capitals. Osman Koruturk, Turkey's former ambassador to Iran, had to leave Tehran and is now
representing Turkey in Norway.
Syria
Commenting on the new period of repairing ties with Syria, a governmental source told the TON that
Turkey had to be in dialogue with Syria, especially at a time when unexpected developments were taking
place regarding northern Iraq.
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