Azerbaijan, Baku, 6 August / Trend corr. S. Ilhamgizi, T.Jafarov/ Though the expected official visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Turkey regards official Ankara's mediation between Tehran and the West, it is still dangerous for Turkey's foreign policy.
"Given Iran's relations with western countries, Ahmadinejad's visit to Turkey is a problematic visit for country's foreign policy," Arif Keskin said to Trend .
On 14 August, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will pay an official visit to Turkey. According to Turkish media, the purpose of the visit is to discuss Iran's uranium enrichment program.
Keskin believes Ahmadinejad's visit will create a risk for Turkey's foreign policy. "Given Iran's conflicts with such countries as the United States and Israel and coincidence of Iran's views with those of regional radical groups, Ahmadinejad's visit to Turkey is risky for the foreign policy of the country," Keskin said in a telephone conversation from Istanbul on 5 August. He said the problem had already occurred even before Ahmadinejad's arrival, mentioning the rumours that President is not going to visit the grave of Ataturk.
Keskin said that is why the importance of Ahmadinejad's official visit descended to the level of a business trip. The meeting is expected to take place not in the capital city Ankara but in Istanbul.
The political scientist said Ahmadinejad wanted to visit Turkey both during the tenure of country's current President Abdullah Gul and during the office of President Ahmet Nejdet Sezer. However, Ankara did not agree. Now, reception of Ahmadinejad by official Ankara is risky for Turkey and is very important for Iran. "Since the West negatively takes Ahmadinejad and even the heads and officials of the western countries do not want to meet with him. Reception of Ahmadinejad by official Turkey improves his importance and is a favourable event," said Keskin.
Keskin believes that the initiative of Turkey's mediation with regards to the nuclear program of Iran is only an attempt to soften the situation. In his opinion, the sides hold meetings without Turkey, and there are mechanisms of the dialog: "Turkey does not have role of mediator between Iran and West. Turkey is only concerned that as though the relations between Iran and the USA can even more deteriorate, and it was interested in presence in settling the problem diplomatically," said political scientist.
The Iranian political expert of Ahmad Zeydabadi considers that Ahmadinejad's visit to Turkey is connected precisely with the initiative of the mediation of official Ankara. "The officials of Turkey saw that the mediation of this country between Israel and Syria yielded results, and they intend to become the mediators between the West and official Teheran," Iranian expert in the Near Eastern countries, Zeydabadi, said to Trend correspondent in Teheran.
In his opinion, because of the fact that
the officials of Turkey feed hopes in the mediation in the nuclear program of Iran, they invited Ahmadinejad to Turkey.
Expert considers that and the Western countries do not object that any third
country would assume the role of mediator with regards to the nuclear program
of Iran: "In my opinion, the presence of mediation depends on the position of Iran itself. Many countries desire to achieve mediation between the countries of the West
and Iran, however, Turkey's position is visible most of all," said expert.
According to Zeydabadi, during the performance of intermediary mission by very most important question will incline Iran to agreement with the proposals of six countries (standing member-countries of UN Security Council of the United Nations): "I consider that Turkey will not be able to incline Iran to the agreement on acceptance of these proposals," said Iranian politician.
The Western countries accuse Iran of producing nuclear
weapons, and due to it, the UN Security Council passed three resolutions, which
require immediate cessation of uranium enrichment by Iran.
Iran, in turn, rejects these accusations and declares that enriches uranium
for the peaceful purposes.
The correspondent can be contacted at [email protected]