ERDOGAN’S VISIT TO BE A SERIOUS TEST FOR TURKISH-IRANIAN RELATIONS
Azg/am
30 July 2004
Turkey’s American Policy is an Obstacle on This Path
On July 27 the prime minister of Turkey Ragep Tayyip Erdogan left for
Tehran on a three-day official visit. He was welcomed in the Sadabad
palace and had a half an hour private talk with the first
vice-president of Iran Islamic Republic Mohammad Reza Arif.
According to Turkish press, the talks were mainly on the PKK successor
People’ s Congress of Kurdistan, and the Iranian side met the wish of
Turkey and promised to enroll the Kurdish Congress into the list of
terrorist organizations. The same newspapers write that the Turkish
PM is successful in his talks on reassessing the price of the Iranian
gas. It seems that Turkey may go further attempting to transfer
Iranian gas to Europe via its territory.
Iran will not benefit from declaring the PKK a terrorist organization
because it will awake Kurdish aggression in the country and the USA
will use this situation for its purposes.
Taking into consideration the fact that Iraq is within reach and that
the Kurdish leaders of Iraq Jalal Talabani and Masud Barzani that are
under Washington ‘s control and have close ties with the PKK, we think
that Iran should refrain from pleasing Turkey and taking that
decision.
Otherwise, the USA will only be glad if Iran meets Turkey’s wish. The
USA can’ t put up with the idea that the Iranian gas will go to
Turkey, as this will bring Turkey and Iran to economic cooperation.
But the perspective of the Iranian gas to be exported to Europe is
even torturous for the USA as it wants to see Iran weak, with unstable
inner political life and isolated from the world. This is especially
true now when the two bordering countries of Iran Afghanistan and Iraq
are occupied and the American military bases are located in the
Caucasus and the Middle East.
It was not a coincidence that just a day before Erdogan’s visit
Washington threatened to bomb Iran to prevent the opening of the
nuclear power plant. Israel joined America in expressing displeasure
over Erdogan’s visit.
It is obvious that the Turkish-Iranian cooperation will involve Syria
as well and thus it cannot be acceptable for both Israel and the USA.
It seems that the Great Middle East project should also contradict
Iran. Erdogan’s visit to Tehran may be considered a success unless
his plans were to incline the Iranian government to the project and
please America.
By Hakob Chakrian