Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: Iran is everywhere

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: Iran is everywhere

    Cihan News Agency (CNA), Turkey
    December 8, 2012 Saturday


    Iran is everywhere

    by ABDÜLHAMIT BILICI


    ISTANBUL (CIHAN)- "In recent years, we, as Turkey, have come across
    Iran wherever we turn." This remark does not belong to a conspiracy
    theorist who utters unbelievable arguments or a partial analyst who
    does not care about reality.


    It was said by an official who possesses information on intelligence
    but who also has information on both the deep and semi-deep state.

    It may sound surprising to some of us, but Iran's approach to every
    matter, including the fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party
    (PKK), the Syrian crisis and relations with Lebanon and Iraq, is
    diametrically opposite to Turkey's. Given the fact that Iran and
    Turkey have historically been in a never-ending competition in the
    region, a race that may even evolve into hostility at times, how can
    we regard the current status in bilateral relations as surprising? It
    shouldn't be startling, at least to those who look at the process from
    a historical perspective and who don't disregard geopolitical laws. If
    there is a fierce competition that even amounts to hostility at times
    between Turkey and Iran, is the solution a conflict or war? Absolutely
    not.

    What must be done is to sweep aside the romanticism that refuses to
    take heed of realities and the historical perspective and study Iran
    in-depth with its domestic balance, the policies it pursues in the
    Middle East and around the world and as regards Turkey and develop a
    new approach.

    Today's Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bülent Kenes's books, which are the
    products of his doctoral work on the foreign policy of the Iranian
    revolution, fill the deep void in this regard. Kenes's previously
    published book tried to ascertain whether Iran should be perceived as
    "a threat or an opportunity." Some of his striking arguments were that
    Iran would attack the Ottoman Empire whenever it was attacked by
    European powers, that Iran -- which voices its Islamic concerns over
    Palestine -- entertains friendly ties with Armenia despite the
    Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and that that Iran
    lends support to the Baath regime-orchestrated massacre in Syria. He
    also explains how in 1982 Iran failed to react to the tragedy in Hama
    and that while it pretends to pursue Islamic policies, Iran has a
    pragmatic/nationalist policy of holding secret negotiations with
    Israel and the US, and that the taqiyya (deception) principle has a
    deep-root sectarian legitimacy in the system.

    Kenes's new book from the same series, "Iran ve Terör" (Iran and
    Terror), puts the spotlight on this country's involvement in
    terrorism, a hot topic on the world's agenda.

    Drawing attention to the fact that the policy Iran pursued in the
    post-revolution era has played a major role in contributing to the
    international community's tendency to link Islam with violence and
    terrorism long before al-Qaeda's heinous terrorist attacks, Kenes
    maintains that Tehran not only lent support to all kinds of subversive
    activities against the regimes of neighboring countries including
    Turkey, but also aided in all possible ways local and global terrorist
    organizations.

    He notes that terrorism is instrumental in Iran's official policies
    and explains that Iran would intentionally leave its traces in
    assassinations it carried out against regime dissidents as a calling
    card, but destroyed all the evidence in other attacks so that they
    could not be traced back to Iran.

    There is an official Iran as represented by spiritual leaders and
    Revolutionary Guards, however, the country is extremely diverse, most
    of which is not visible to the international community. It might have
    been useful to discuss Iran's official position in terms of the
    differences between Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or
    between conservatives and the supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who
    took to the streets for the Green Revolution. There are many Iranians
    who disapprove of the regime's acts and who envy modernizing and
    liberalizing Turkey and who have kinship ties with Turkey and we
    should avoid the risk of pushing the conflict to an ontological level.

    Given the fact that Iran will occupy greater room in both the world
    and Turkey's agenda as regards regional developments in the coming
    days, Kenes's book is a noteworthy pioneering source.

Working...
X