Turkey faces tough choice over Iran nuke row

As pressure on Iran intensifies over its controversial nuclear program, Turkey is also feeling the heat for its staunch opposition to sanctions against its neighbor. With Washington and Tehran hosting nuclear conferences this month, Ankara’s stance will again be tested as the US ramps up calls for tougher measures at an upcoming UN Security Council meeting.

With Washington and Tehran both set to hold summits on nuclear proliferation this month, continued calls for tougher sanctions against Iran have left Turkey caught between its neighbor and its Western allies, analysts say.

The U.S. is expected to push for tougher additional sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program at an upcoming U.N. Security Council meeting, a measure staunchly opposed by Turkey, which is a nonpermanent member of the council.

“We believe that this question should be resolved diplomatically,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro that was published Tuesday. “Sure, sanctions are an issue at the moment, but I don’t think the ones being discussed can bring results.”

The United States, Britain, France and Germany are expected to meet with Russia and China in New York this week to begin drafting a new round of sanctions against Iran. Once the five permanent, veto-holding Security Council members plus Germany agree, they will present the proposal to the other 10 council members.

Lebanon, Turkey and Brazil are all likely to oppose the idea. Ankara abstained during a November 2009 vote on another resolution censuring Tehran and demanding that Iran stop its uranium-enrichment activities.

“Those who made the decision to apply [previous sanctions] were the first to violate them,” Erdoğan told Le Figaro. “The French, the Germans, the English, the Americans and the Chinese: They are all involved and still manage to indirectly send their products to Iran.”

Iran rejects Western accusations that it is trying to make nuclear weapons and says its enrichment program is aimed only at generating electricity for civilian use.

“Turkey’s position is not an easy one,” said Şanlı Bahadır Koç, a researcher focusing on Turkey-U.S. relations. “Opposing sanctions is in Turkey’s interest, but Iran’s not acquiring nuclear power is also in Turkey’s interest.”

Erdoğan recently announced that he would attend an international nuclear-security summit in Washington, D.C., on April 12 and 13, where over 40 heads of state and government will be present.

It is not yet clear if Turkey will be represented at the subsequent summit that Iran plans to host in Tehran on April 17 and 18. Iran has extended an invitation to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review has learned from diplomatic sources.

Foreign ministers as well as heads of research centers and think tanks from more than 60 countries are expected to participate in the Tehran conference on international disarmament and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The theme of the event is “nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear weapons for no one.”

In recent remarks, Erdoğan has gone as far as saying that Tehran’s nuclear program is peaceful and blaming Israel for the Middle East’s nuclear problems.

“The Turkish prime minister is giving a blank check to Iran’s nuclear program. That position could create problems for Turkey if Iran obtains nuclear power in the future,” said Koç. “Turkey, as a friend, can still foster a critical dialogue with Iran and needs to criticize Iran without resorting to Western arguments.”

Ahead of a vote at the U.N. Security Council in the upcoming weeks, U.S. and other Western officials say they are working to persuade China to agree to a joint resolution text.

“If China endorses a watered-down resolution, it would be harder for Turkey to reject it,” said Bülent Aliriza, the head of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has already voiced dismay with Turkey’s stance on Iran, with Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Phil Gordon saying that Ankara might face consequences as a result.

“With respect to Iran, while the international community has sought to present a single, coordinated message to Iran’s government, Turkey has at times sounded a different note,” Gordon said in a March 17 speech in Washington.

“There is no change in Turkey’s stance toward Iran’s nuclear program,” said Arzu Celalifer, an Iranian-studies expert at the Ankara-based think tank USAK. “Turkey says it is against nuclear armament and believes the problem should be resolved through diplomatic means.

“However, the way that stance is expressed by Prime Minister Erdoğan’s insistent comparison between Israel and Iran at different platforms is leading to different perceptions,” she said, adding that it is hard to predict how Turkey would vote if faced with a sanctions resolution.

“No matter if Turkey abstains, says ‘no’ or says ‘yes,’ each would have different meanings. I sometimes wish Turkey had never been [put] on the Security Council,” Celalifer said. “The most logical [choice] would be to abstain, but the circumstances could change at any time, as the floor is so slippery.”

In advance of the summit in Washington, British daily The Times reported last week that the United States is considering withdrawing its last tactical nuclear weapons from Europe: 200 B61 gravity bombs that are based in Belgium, Turkey, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, all members of NATO. Turkey reportedly hosts about 90 of these weapons.

Several countries say they want the nuclear gravity bombs to be withdrawn because there is no longer any justification for keeping them in Europe.

Neither U.S. nor Turkish officials have commented on The Times’ report due to the sensitivity of the matter.

More recently, Taner Baytok, a retired ambassador and former advisor to the National Defense Ministry, suggested that the United States had tactical nuclear weapons not at the southern Incirlik Airbase, but in Istanbul, Turkey’s most populated city.

Baytok said these weapons are in Istanbul and some other cities in the Black Sea region.


/Hurriyet Daily News/