Erdoğan says visit to Tehran still on after trading accusations with Iran

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaks to reporters at İstanbul Atatürk Airport before his departure to Slovenia for an official visit on Monday. (Photo: DHA)

March 30, 2015, Monday/ 18:32:19/ DENİZ ARSLAN / ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that his scheduled visit to Tehran early next month is still on, after his recent highly critical remarks on Iran regarding the country's intervention in Yemen has caused tension in Turkey's relationship with Iran, a country that Erdoğan had previously called his second home.

Speaking at a news conference in İstanbul before his trip to Slovenia on Monday, Erdoğan said Turkey is watching the developments in Yemen, where a Saudi Arabian-led Arab coalition that includes Egypt began bombing the Iranian-backed Houthis on Thursday.

"For the moment we are sticking to our Iranian program,” Erdoğan said. He is scheduled to pay a visit to Iran on April 7.

Erdoğan created tension in Turkey-Iran relations after calling on Iran to stop supporting the Shiite Houthis in Yemen last week, adding that Iran is trying to dominate the Middle East and Iran's intervention in Iraq, Syria and Yemen annoys Turkey.

Cancelling the trip would mark an increase tension between Turkey and Iran. The two countries already have different views on Syria. While Turkey supports the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Iran backs the current regime.

Following Erdoğan's remarks, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Turkish Charge d'affaires in Tehran Barış Saygın and handed him a diplomatic note asking for a clear and convincing explanation from Ankara to clarify the president's criticism of Iran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Merziye Afham said on Monday.

Speaking to journalists, Afham said that Erdoğan's remarks are against established customs and inappropriate. Iran summoned Saygın because Turkey's Ambassador to Iran, Rıza Hakan Tekin is out of Iran currently. Afham stressed that Iran's strategic approach to the region and the relationships it has with its neighbors are based on mutual respect, and Turkey and Iran have the capacity to show mutual respect to each other.

Since Erdoğan's remarks on Iran last week, a number of Iranian officials and lawmakers called on the Iranian government to cancel Erdoğan's visit to Tehran.

The head of Iran's parliamentary investigation commission, Mohammed Mehdi Zahedi, said that Erdoğan's visit to Tehran should be postponed after Erdoğan's criticism of Iran and Turkey's support to the Saudi-led military operation in Yemen.

Speaking to the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA), the official news agency of the Iranian Parliament, Zahedi said, “Erdoğan must first take a step back from his current attitude towards Iran and then come to Tehran.”

Iranian parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission member İsmail Kevseri also called on the Iranian Foreign Ministry to cancel Erdoğan's visit to Iran. Speaking to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency, Kevseri said on Monday that if Erdoğan's visit is not canceled, then Iranian parliamentarians may ask to discuss the issue in parliament. Kevseri said that if Erdoğan is making inappropriate remarks, he needs to understand that there will be a response.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also publicly rebuffed Erdogan's accusations and accused him of pursuing policies harmful to the region. However, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi was reported as saying on Sunday that there had been no change to Erdogan's visit. Turkey's presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın also said last week that Erdoğan's visit to Iran will not be postponed.

Mansour Haghighatpour, the deputy chair of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, spoke to the Iranian-based Tasnim news agency, saying, “Erdoğan's proposed visit to Iran will have no effect after his rhetoric against Iran, so it must be postponed this time around.”

Ayatollah Hasan Ameli, who holds a high-ranking title given to Twelver Shia clerics in Iran, said Erdoğan's visit should “come under review.”

Ameli told the Iran-based FARS news agency that the "Saudi regime, together with America, the UN, the UN Security Council and the mischief-making servants of the palace" had received permission to attack Yemen and meddle in its internal affairs from Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi clerics.

Haghighatpour, who is also a deputy in the Iranian parliament, demanded that Erdoğan take back his words and be more careful with his actions, stating, “Erdoğan's allegations that Iran is meddling with Yemen's internal affairs are empty and hypocritical because he himself is being accused of providing aid to terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [ISIL].”

At Monday's press conference, in response to the criticism coming from the Iranian Parliament, Erdoğan said they are not his interlocutors and the decision to go to Iran or not is up to Turkey. He once again stressed the importance of maintaining the territorial integrity of Yemen and asked the Iranian forces to leave Yemen.

Healthy relations between Iran-Turkey important

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Adana deputy and veteran diplomat Faruk Loğoğlu told Today's Zaman on Monday that it's important to keep Turkish-Iranian relations healthy at a time of crisis in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

Loğoğlu said Erdoğan's Iran outburst has no potential to improve the situation in Yemen. “Turkey takes a position to support one side and contribute to the sectarian polarization in Yemen, harming its relations with Iran. It's against Turkish interests, Iranian interests and regional interests,” he stated.

Suggesting that Turkey needs to get together with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran and start a dialogue over Yemen, Loğoğlu said, “They all need to work together.”

When reminded that Turkey and Egypt have been at odds since Egyptian former military head Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has come to power, Loğoğlu said, “Well, Erdoğan expressed support to the Saudi-led operation on Yemen and he knows very well that Egypt is a part of that operation.”

He said that military intervention in Yemen will not solve the problems of the country.

Criticizing the silence of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu's government on Erdoğan's Iran remarks, Loğoğlu said: “The government needs to mend ties with Iran. Tension in Turkey-Iran relations will not be good for Turkey, Iran or for the region. Iran also shouldn't intervene in Yemen.”

Speculating on the reasons behind Erdoğan's Iran outburst, Loğoğlu said Erdoğan may not be pleased to see the increase in Iran's influence in the region. Nothing that there is also an expectation of a positive outcome from the nuclear talks with Iran, Loğoğlu said, “Erdoğan may be seeing these developments as a challenge to his ambition of establishing Sunni-Islamic leadership in the region and sending a message to the West.”

He dismissed the idea of the US being behind Erdoğan's critical remarks on Iran. US President Barack Obama and Erdoğan had a phone conversation last week to discuss the situation in Yemen and other issues. Hours after the phone call, Erdoğan's statement on Iran came. Loğoğlu stressed that Washington would not ask Erdoğan to make a statement against Iran at a time that there is progress on the Iran nuclear talks.

The Turkish president's outburst towards Iran comes as a surprise to many, as during his visit to Tehran in 2014, which was aimed at strengthening bilateral relations, particularly trade, and facilitating Erdoğan's first meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rohani, then-Prime Minister Erdoğan had said that Iran was like his “second home.”

Keywords: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , Tehran , Iran , Yemen