TURKEY/IRAN: More than nothing, les

[PeaceNet Middle East Team]

From: <pnmideast>
Subject: TURKEY/IRAN: More than nothing, les

/* Written 12:11 am  Sep 18, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "TURKEY/IRAN: More than nothing, les" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: TURKEY/IRAN: More than nothing, less than hoped for from accord


istanbul, sep 15 (ips/nadire mater) -- turkey won agreement from
iran on a joint anti-terrorism protocol tuesday but not without
making concessions on a carefully drafted text -- designed to to
circumvent the wide differences between the two competing nations.

greeting the signing in teheran tuesday with smiles, turkey's
interior minister izmet sezgin said the cooperation deal would
bring peace to the region. ''we have condemned terrorism jointly''
he told journalists, though his iranian opposite number abdullah
nuri limited himself to saying there were no problems. ''we are
ready for cooperation,'' he added.

missing from the event were the kurdish guerrillas of the kurdish
workers party (pkk) whose reported operations against turkish
government targets from iranian bases drove ankara to seek a deal
with iran -- its prickly neighbour for several centuries.

in a concession to the iranians the pkk were not named once in
the 13 clause accord -- though they cast a long shadow over the
proceedings. late last month a reported force 500 pkk guerrillas
attacked a turkish base at alan on the iranian border -- some 43
ppk and 10 turkish troops were said by ankara to have died in the
ten hour firefight that followed.

ankara further claimed that the pkk used an iranian base on the
other side of the border during the attack. sezgin took to teheran
documents he said ''proved'' the pkk ran bases inside iran and
handed over a videotape of the interrogation of a pkk prisoner who
confirmed the claim -- adding for good measure than one camp was
commanded by osman ocalan, brother of pkk leader abdullah.

iran flatly denied all the claims -- a sticking point that
threatened to scupper the whole accord -- but from monday iranian
president hashemi rafsanjani and his chief aide hassan habibi were
telling sezgin that something should be done.

''should we not fight against terror, the blood of the victims
would be on our hands,'' said the iranian leader in a statement.
''it is not only that we have to fight against terror, we are
fated to fight against it.''

but identifying the targets by name was too much for both sides.
in spite of turkish insistence, the pkk was deleted by name from
the accord under iranian pressure; similarly the turkish anatolian
news agency reported that ankara had its own objections to naming
iranian political and military opponents.

they reported that in his meeting with sezgin, rafsanjani raised
the issue of iranian dissidents -- from the mujaheedin through to
members of the iranian kurdish democratic party and various pro-
shah groups -- still active in turkey. (more/ips)

turkey/iran: more than nothing, less than hoped for from accord(2-e)

turkey/iran: more than nothing (2)

iran requested that all ''anti-iranian'' activities being
conducted in turkey -- including democratic ones -- be stopped and
the dissidents expelled or returned to iran without conditions.

turkey cited its own constitution and said that they could only
ban the activities of groups advocating armed struggle -- to
which, as the anatolian news agency reported, the iranians advised
turkey to get a new constitution.

to circumvent this dispute, the two nations settled on a careful
wording to the effect that ''terrorist organisations and the
activities of dissident groups are evaluated within the framework
of the laws of the country in which they operate''.

agreement was in part motivated by iran's obsevance of turkish
cross-border military operations against the pkk in iraq, and the
much reported comments of turkish president turgut ozal that had
he been leading the troops defending the base at alan he would
have ordered his forces into iran in pursuit of the pkk attackers.

iran dislikes the idea of turkey establishing a regional
powerbase on their doorstep and competing with them for the hearts
and minds of the area's muslim nations. ankara's support for the
u.s. led military coalition against iraq in the gulf war also
rankled and worried teheran.

however the extent of iran's willingness to abide by the accord
is by no means certain. sezgin told journalists monday that habibi
had told him that iran was determined to fight terrorism, ''even
if we don't cooperate with you (turkey)''.

the accord signed tuesday, suggests differently, promising ''the
mutual precautions to encce border security''.

to underline the military implications, the commander of turkey's
paramilitary gendarmes esref bitlis, chief of staff of the
security forces yilmaz ergun and turkish intelligence joined
sezgin on his visit.

to follow up, turkish prime minister suleyman demirel is to visit
iran at the end of october and sezgin and nuri will meet again in
a fortnight in ankara to start up a joint ministerial committee to
exchange intelligence.

but despite this analysts here recalled sezgin's april visit  to
syria with a very similar entourage and a similar mission.

as with the iranian trip, sezgin said that all turkey's aims had
been achieved. but there are continued reports that the pkk
continue its operations in the syrian controlled bek'aa valley and
that its leader ocalan is in damascus. (end/ips/rp/nm/rj/92)