Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
turkish daily news
Wednesday, January 5, 19941
Iran continues its goodwill mission between Turkey and Syria
FM Velayeti's adviser visits Ankara after Damascus, bringing message to Foreign Minister çetin
By Adnan Çaglayan
Turkish DiJily News
ANKARA- The advisor to the Iranian
foreign minister was in Ankara last week.
Diplomatic sources said his visit was in
the nature of a "goodwill initiative" to
iron out difference between Turkey and
Syria prior to tripartite talks between the
three countries. The \'isiting official, Muhammad
Qazim Hansari, advisor to Iranian
FM Ali Akbar Velayeti recently had
talks in Damascus. According to the
sources, Hansari brought a wrillen message
from VeJél):'eti to his Turkish counterpart
Hikmet (,.'etin.
The me,'a~e is said to contains Tehran's
suggestions on solutions to regional
problems.
Hansari reportedly also handed a similar
message to Synan Foreign Minister
Farouq AI-Shara last week in Damascus.
"Tehran has launched a diplomatic initiative
aimed at establishing extensive regional
cooperation between neighborin&
countries, especially on the question or
northern Iraq," one source told the TDN,
"Within th~ framework of this mitiative,
Iran embarked on shullle diplomacy
between Ankara and Damascus before the
tripartite talks are held between Turkey
Syria and Iran in Istanbul in the second
week of February." he added, Sources sav
the main problems between Ankara and
Damascus at the present time are the issues
of border security, which is imrortant
for Turkey, and the utilization 0 region~
waters that Syria lays stress on.
Thl.s ha~ been the ~ain reason stalling
the tnpartlte talks, whIch were originally
planned for late November.
Da.mascus. has be~n trying to link the
two Issues In negotIation with Ankara.
But Turkey refuses to accept such a linkage,
arguing that the two issues are completely
separate and unrelated subjects.
Iran has been trying to convince Turkey
to end the multinational Operation Provide
Comfort deployed in southeast Anatolia
in. 1991 to p!otect northern Iraqi
Kurds, In the first Instance against Iraqi
forces loyal to Saddam Hussein.
It .has expressed support for a possible
"regIOnal formula" to replace the multina;
tional force. Al present, U.S., BritIsh and'
French fighter aIrcraft patrol the U.N. impo~ed
no-fly zone north of the 36th parallel
In Iraq.
Iran's traditi~n~1 sensitivity toward!
western Countnes IS a touchy problem in
furco-Iranian relations. Iran has also fell
Isolate~ b~cause of the current improve.
m~n~s m tIes between Syria and the Wesi
wlthm the context of the Middle Easl
peace process.
Tehran is attaching great im~ortance to
the trip~rtite tal.ks, first held In January
] 993, ~Ith the aIm of reiterating the three
c.ountnes' support for the territorial integntY
of .Iraq and t~eir opposition to any
suggestIOn that an mdependent Kurdistan
be established in the region.
All three countries have their own
K~rdish minorities and are concerned at a
spIllover separatist effect in the event that
a Kurdish state is established on their borders.
According to ~iplomatic circles, the
three ~ount!1es .wIII restate their positions
on thIs pomt If the tripartite talks are
eventually held as planned.
Demonstrators to leave Belgium today
Tobback: Kurdish dellwllstrators
Tllrki.,1J
DiJily New.'
ANKARA- Belgium announced that
the Kurdish demonstrators who had
triggered last weekend's clashes in
Brussels would leave the country today,
Anatolia news agency reported on
Tuesday. The minister of the interior,
Louis Tobback, who had said earlier
Ihat Ihe Kurdish demonstrators were
under the protection of Belgium, said
that they had promised to leave the
country on Wednesday.
However, he added that "they will
meet with no problems before their departure."
Tobback had earlier blamed the
Turkish nationalist right-wing Grey
Wolves for instigating the violence,
and warned them "not to export this
dirty war to Belgian territory."
The small group representing the
demonstrators also met with the Belgian
forei!!n minister, Willy Claes, late
Monday. tlaes laid themthat his country
would not be the stage for clashes
between groups of foreigners, and condemned
Ihe violence thaI flared up in
to leave Belgiull~ but fW actiOll will be takell against them
Brussels betwcen Kurds and Turks.
The meeting, requested by the
Kurds, follows two nights of clashes in
the narrow streets of Brussels' Turkish
quarter. where local Turks protested at
the arrival of 150 activists of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) on a
"freedommarch" from Germany.
"Claes expressed his understanding
of the Kurdish problem but condemned
all use of force in political struggles,"
according to a statement from the
Foreign Ministry.
"He explicitly declared that Belgium,
with its tradition of hospitality
towards political refugees. refused to
become the theatre for violent confrontations
between groups of foreigners,"
it added.
Claes had spoken with Turkish Foreign
Minister Hikmet Çetin, and met
Turkey's ambassador to Belgium on
Monday, but the statement gave no details.
The ministry made no comment in
rc!!ard to Turkish accusaI ions that Belgium
was 10 blamc for the violence in
Brussels. Bulthe
Turkish Ambassador to Belgium
said that Claes had told him! in an interview
on Belgium's YTM television
network, that the meeting of the Kurds
on Saturday had not been authorized.
He had reported back to Ankara on his
meeting with Claes and insisted that
there had not been any real differences
between the two countries.
Cetin briefs Parliament
foreign Minister Hikmet Çetin,
meanwhile, addressed the parliament
on the events in Belgium.
"What has happened in Belgium is
not a Turco-Kurdish clash," Cetin said.
"It is a clash between the Turks and the
militants of the separatist organization."
Çetin called on the European states
to' take adequate measures" againstthe
terrorist organizations and added that
the issue would be discussed when he
and Prime Minister Tansu Çiller went
to Brussels for a NATO summit on
Jan. 10.
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