Ignoring U.S.,
Turkey and Iran Sign Trade Accords

ANKARA, Turkey, Dec. 21 -- NATO member Turkey today signed 
several accords with Iran designed to bolster trade between the 
neighboring countries, ignoring a U.S. call to isolate Tehran.

The agreements, designed to double the trade volume between Turkey 
and Iran to $2 billion, were signed near the end of a four-day visit to 
Turkey by Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani that has 
caused concern in Washington.

The accords illustrated the warming of relations between Turkey 
and Iran that has been fostered by Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister 
Necmettin Erbakan. Erbakan visited Iran shortly after taking office 
in June and concluded a $23 billion natural gas deal. Turkish 
officials said construction of a pipeline to carry the Iranian gas to 
Turkey will begin next year. 

According to diplomatic sources in Ankara, the United States has 
expressed "very serious reservations" about the rapprochement 
between its NATO ally and Iran, which it accuses of funding 
terrorism directed against NATO and Western targets.

"We strongly advise the Turkish government not to improve its 
relationship with Iran," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns 
said Friday in Washington, adding that the United States "didn't think 
much of the visit" by Rafsanjani to Turkey.

Under the accords signed in Ankara, Turkey and Iran grant each other 
most favored nation trading status, call for the encouragement and 
promotion of mutual investment, outline new cooperation in 
maritime trade, including the use of shipping lanes, ports and 
territorial waters, and agree to establish a joint chamber of 
commerce.

Rafsanjani was asked at a news conference whether the accords put 
Turkish companies at risk of U.S. sanctions, called for by the Iran 
and Libya Sanctions Act, if they invest more than $40 million in 
Iran's energy sector. The Iranian president replied, "We will not 
allow third parties to interfere with our relations."

"The United States might be angry with our agreements with Turkey, 
but this is their problem," Rafsanjani said, adding, "America is 
against powerful countries in this region cooperating."

Remarking on the changes in Turkey under Erbakan, Rafsanjani 
commented that he had observed on his third trip here that "there is 
a real return to Islam" apparent in the country.

The visit by the Iranian brought to the surface a certain discomfort 
on the part of many secular Turks who do not approve of Erbakan's 
overtures to Iran and Libya, which the prime minister visited last 
autumn.

Rafsanjani's daughter, Faezeh, created some commotion among 
secular Turks by stating that "Ankara resembles Iran during the last 
years of the shah." A legislator from the center-right coalition 
partner True Path Party, Ali Riza Gonul, protested, saying that "a 
guest should respect the hospitality shown to her" and that her 
remarks "were of a very distressing nature."

Although Turkish foreign policy under Erbakan has at times seemed 
to be a struggle for supremacy between Erbakan's pro-Islamic team 
and the staunchly secular bureaucracy and military, a senior Foreign 
Ministry official stressed today that Turkey had been working to 
enhance trade with Iran long before Erbakan took office.

"Iran is an important neighbor of Turkey. We have always given a lot 
of importance to our relations with Iran," the official said.

The powerful Turkish military, which considers itself the protector 
of the secular Turkish state, signaled during the Iranian visit that 
there are limits to the cooperation it will allow. Defense Minister 
Turhan Tayan rejected the idea of a military industry cooperation 
agreement floated by Erbakan on the eve of the visit.

"Cooperation in the defense industry is not appropriate in our 
opinion," Tayan was quoted as saying.

Security problems have caused friction between Iran and Turkey in 
the past, with Turkey accusing Iran of allowing Kurdish separatists 
who have been fighting Ankara for the last 12 years to set up bases 
inside Iranian territory.

Rafsanjani denied today that there were any camps or bases 
harboring Kurdish Worker Party separatists in Iran.