TURKISH PM WON’T BACK IRAN SANCTIONS
Tom Evans

CNN News
April 13 2010

Washington (CNN) – Turkey’s prime minister declined to support
President Barack Obama’s push for tough new sanctions against Iran but
said his country was willing to act as a mediator in the diplomatic
standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has had a strategic
alliance with Iran since the 17th century and wants a diplomatic
solution to end the deadlock. Erdogan spoke to CNN’s Christiane
Amanpour while in Washington to attend the Obama administration’s
summit on nuclear security, saying, "I believe that we can find a
way out."

"I am here for a diplomatic solution," he said. Countries that
are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 1968
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) "must all work together on this, and as
(for) Turkey, we could act as a very important intermediary."

Turkey is a rotating member of the United Nations Security Council,
which has demanded that Iran halt its nuclear fuel program. Iran
has refused the demand and continued to produce enriched uranium,
which in high concentrations can be used to produce a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the
United States has accused it of trying to develop a nuclear bomb.

The IAEA – the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency – reported in February that
Iran has begun enriching uranium to higher levels without necessary
safeguards, and the agency has said it has been unable to rule out
the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program without further
cooperation from Tehran.

While declining to endorse the idea of new sanctions against Tehran,
Erdogan also said Ankara does not want to see any nuclear weapons in
the Middle East. He noted that Israel, which does not recognize the NPT
and is believed to have nuclear weapons, remains a member of the IAEA.

"Why do we not say the same thing to the country that does not
recognize the NPT? That is also a cause for concern for me," Erdogan
said. "It is important that we try to take steps to overcome those
difficulties, so that we can strengthen peace in the Middle East."

Erdogan said he wants Israel to make a contribution to peace. But
he said that was proving difficult because when Israel’s coalition
government speaks, "it’s not a symphony, it’s a cacophony."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week suddenly called
off plans to attend the summit, apparently in an attempt to avoid any
scrutiny of his country’s nuclear policy. Though independent analysts
estimate Israel has a stockpile of up to 200 nuclear warheads, Israel
has never confirmed or denied whether it has the bomb.

For his part, Erdogan is trying to avoid the scrutiny of U.S.
lawmakers who recently supported a resolution in the House of
Representatives that branded the World War I-era killings of
Armenians by Turkey as genocide. After the resolution was passed,
Turkey temporarily withdrew its ambassador from Washington.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed in organized
killings and deportations under the Ottoman Empire between 1915
and 1917. Erdogan said Turkey cannot accept that the killings were
genocide, and he was confident Obama will not use the term either.

"That would be my expectation, because to this day, no American leader
has uttered that word, and I believe that President Obama will not,"
he said.

Erdogan said the time when the killings took place was a period of
war and revolts, and pointed out that the Turkish people also suffered
terrible losses during the 1914-18 conflict.

"No nation, no people has the right to impose the way it remembers
history to another nation or people – and Turkey does not try to do
that," he added.

Erdogan was due to meet Obama on the sidelines of the nuclear summit
on Tuesday.