TEHRAN, 30 July 2004 — Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrapped up a landmark visit to Iran yesterday, with the two sides appearing to have overcome deep-rooted differences by pledging to boost trade and address their common fear of Kurdish rebels. The two-day visit, which caps a recent warming of ties between the two neighbors, was due to culminate with the signing of three key financial agreements and one on security cooperation.
Erdogan has been pressing Iran to put Turkish Kurd rebels on its list of terrorist groups. This would be a major breakthrough in ties, as both sides have in the past traded accusations of sheltering dissidents.
The premier said he hoped Iran would be officially signing up to fight the former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), now known as Kongra-Gel. The group has waged a 15-year separatist war in predominantly Kurdish southeast Turkey. Turkey and Iran have recently boosted cooperation on security matters, including against the ex-PKK, with Iranian security forces earlier this month launching a major crackdown on their militants hiding in Iranian territory along the border with Turkey.
Iran also has a Kurdish minority and shares Turkey’s concerns that any moves toward greater autonomy by the Kurds in northern Iraq could spark unrest among their cousins in neighboring countries.
Erdogan, accompanied by a high-level political and economic delegation including some 130 businessmen, told reporters that “Iran shares the same views with Turkey on Iraq”. And Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, quoted by the official news agency IRNA, said there was a “political urgency” for improved ties — a clear reference to ongoing violence in Iraq.
During his visit, Erdogan has also met with the Islamic republic’s ministers of oil, defense and foreign affairs. He was also greeted by powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, as well as the head of the new conservative-controlled Parliament.
Much of the talks were aimed at resolving a series of bitter trade disputes that have badly damaged confidence on both sides. There has also been an embarrassing spat over a contract to operate Tehran’s new international airport won by a Turkish-led consortium. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shut down the sprawling capital’s new showpiece airport on May 8 after just one flight landed, arguing the contract with Tepe-Akfen-Vie (TAV) endangered the Islamic republic’s security because the operators also had business dealings with Israel.
Meanwhile, officials from Britain, France and Germany were to meet with their Iranian counterparts in Paris yesterday for talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, diplomats said. The talks follow US accusations that Iran is wantonly flouting international calls to curb its nuclear activities, saying Tehran is engaged in a “direct challenge” to the UN atomic watchdog.
“We are at a very important juncture. In general terms, we need to impress on Iran that trust still needs to be built, and that is up to the Iranians,” said one Western diplomat ahead of the Paris talks. Under an agreement reached last year with Britain, France and Germany, Iran agreed to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment, allow tougher inspections and file a comprehensive declaration of its nuclear activities.
The agreement was aimed at allaying international fears that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons, a charge that Tehran denies. But since then, experts from the UN’s nuclear watchdog have found omissions in Iran’s reporting, inspection visits have been delayed and the regime has backed away from a pledge to suspend all enrichment-related activities.
Diplomats in Vienna said Wednesday that Iran had removed the seals placed on centrifuges by the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure Tehran was not using its civilian nuclear program as a cover for weapons development. “Actions like resuming making centrifuges do not improve confidence,” the Western diplomat said.
In Tehran, the deputy head of the Iranian Parliament’s foreign policy and security commission, Mahmoud Mohammadi, said the assembly would not ratify an additional security protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
