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Turkey, Iran Mend Fences after Political Storm
A 140-strong Turkish trade delegation led by Foreign Trade Undersecretary Kursat Tuzmen starts a week-long visit to Iran on Saturday, signaling an end to the month-long discord between the two neighbors over alleged Iranian involvement in a murder case in Turkey.
An uproar erupted in Turkey earlier this month over reports of alleged Iranian link to the assassination of veteran journalist Ugur Mumcu in 1993.
Based on confessions of some arrested suspects, the Turkish security authorities jumped to the conclusion that the link between Iran and the Mumcu murder is "very clear." Some conservative media comments went so far as to urge the authorities to suspend political and economic ties with Iran.
The allegation coincided with the recent uncovering of a string of appalling murders by Hezbollah, a radical Turkish Islamic organization which is believed to have no link with the Iranian-backed Lebanese guerrilla group that bears the same name. However, Turkish Foreign Ministry has been cautious to avoid making hasty statements.
Relations between Turkey and Iran, two major powers in West Asia, have been cool ever since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that brought the clerics to power. Turkey, a mostly Muslim-populated but politically secular state, had been worried about previous Iranian governments' policies of "exporting" the Islamic revolution.
Ankara has accused Tehran of sheltering rebels of the outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party and sponsoring Turkey's radical Islamic groups, such as Hezbollah, which have been seeking to overthrow the secular regime and install strict Islamic rule in Turkey.
Iran categorically denied the accusations. Tehran, for its part, has frowned upon the growing ties between Turkey and Israel, Iran's arch enemy. Some hardline Iranian media also suggested lowering economic and political ties with Turkey.
While certain hardline elements in both countries were playing up the crisis, the Turkish and Iranian governments have made great efforts to try to solve the political woes through diplomatic channel.
On Wednesday, the Iranian ambassador in Ankara, Mohammad Lavassani, called at the Turkish Foreign Ministry and after that both Turkish and Iranian diplomats made conciliatory gestures.
Turkish Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Sermet Atacanli indicated that there are certain issues of sensitivity in Turkey which it expects Iran to respect. Besides, he announced that the Turkish trade delegation would go to Tehran as scheduled, describing it as normal economic activity between the two countries.
Denying that there was a crisis between the two neighbors, the Iranian envoy said Iran is expecting a high-level representation from Turkey at the summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization of Central and West Asian Countries (ECO) to be held in Tehran on June 5. Turkey and Iran, together with Pakistan, are the founding members of the Tehran-based ECO, which was established in 1985 and now has 10 members and a total population of 300 million.
Lavassani underlined the importance of good relations between Iran and Turkey, saying that exchange of visits between the two countries has been continuing. An Iranian delegation visited Turkey last week to discuss demarcation issues on the Turkish-Iranian border, which he termed as a "very important and fundamental visit."
Despite ups and downs in their political relations, it is, without doubt, in Turkey's fundamental interests to pursue peaceful coexistence with Iran, which is influential in the region.
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