Q&A: What is the purpose of Erdogan’s visit to Iran?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Answer to the Question
(Translated)
What is the purpose of Erdogan’s visit to Iran?
On January 28 and 29, 2014 the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Iran. The Middle East Newspaper quoted on 30/01/2014 a source close to Prime Minister Erdogan saying, “The U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, visited Erdogan on the eve of his departure to Tehran the day before yesterday (28/1/2014). The source added that “the Syrian file was a central theme in the visit.” The Ministry of Economy of Turkey announced that the preferential trade agreement is signed between Turkey and Iran on the sidelines of the visit of Prime Minister Erdogan to Iran. (Yeni Safak Turkish 31/1/2014).
The question is: The emphasis from the visit is the preferential trade agreement as well as the Syrian file … Is the intent of the visit the commercial factor or the Syrian file or both? And what is America’s role in it? Jazak Allah Khair.
Answer:
- The main objective of the visit is the Syrian issue. As part of what we have mentioned in the answer to the question issued on 30/11/2013 in which it says the following: (…because of this crisis that is stifling America and preventing its direct influence; because its puppets have failed throughout these three years to have a real say in Syria, and the voices calling for Khilafah stun the ears, eyes, and hearts … all of which made America look to the countries in the region neighbouring Syria to become its front-line to stand in the face of the emergence of any new rule that adopts the Khilafah as a system of the state, life, and society. America chose to assign this mission to two of its followers: Turkey and Iran, while Turkey is not restricted in movements, Iran, is restricted due to the sanctions and all that follows; restricting its activity to be influential internationally and regionally, it is semi- isolated. But it is stronger in action against the Khilafah than Turkey; the Khilafah in the culture of the rulers of Iran is rejected, which motivates them strongly to fight against it, while Turkey on the other hand has a long history and legacy of the Khilafah which makes it difficult for the rulers of Turkey to fight the Khilafah. So America’s new plan requires the activation of the role of these two countries as mentioned, i.e. to stand in the face of any Islamic movement that seeks to establish the Khilafah in Syria; whether it is through material brutal actions inside Syria, or through political treason in Geneva and the like, so that it can find a new puppet ruler to replace the former one and to paralyse the work for the Khilafah. The Turkish Foreign Minister visited Tehran on 27/11/2013, the talks focused on cooperation between the two countries in the issue of Syria and the Geneva Conference; what is hidden is far greater …). End of our previous answer.America is now busy formulating a political solution with the opposition who lack the support inside Syria; which is to make Iran and Turkey crush the sincere voices that are seeking to establish the Khilafah in Syria, this is to pave the way to find acceptance for any political solution reached in Geneva as a first step to install international intervention and secures the political solution sought by America. This is the main objective of the visit, and this is what was discussed between the U.S. Chief of Staff and Erdogan on the eve of Erdogan’s visit to Tehran in 28/01/2014 as stated in the Middle East Newspaper on 30/01/2014 which quoted a source close to Prime Minister Erdogan saying that: ” the Syrian file was a central theme in the visit.” This shows the active American role in the convergence of Iran and Turkey to prevent any actual orientation of the people in Syria to apply the Shari’ah rule in a Khilafah State, through the brutality and intimidation of Iran, and dishonesty, deceit, hypocrisy and support through the statements by Turkey.
- Erdogan’s visit was preceded by two visits paving the way to this objective:First: The visit was by the Turkish Foreign Minister which we mentioned in our previous answer. Turkish-Iranian relations gained strength after the visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at the end of last year, specifically in 27/11/2013. On that day the spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Zeki Levent Gumrukcu gave statements to the Middle East newspaper, related to the visit, saying, “There is a complete agreement on the development of bilateral relations between the two countries, and there are positive talks on Syria, and a full agreement on the commitment to cooperation between the two countries to resolve the crisis in Syria and stop the blood bath in it.” Thus Davutoglu paved the way to the visit by his Prime Minister Erdogan to Iran to strengthen the compatibility between them to solve the Syrian crisis on the basis of the Geneva Conference resolution. It is known that the Geneva Conference 1 and 2 are projects planned by America to maintain its influence in Syria, by maintaining the secular system that follows America by switching some of the people and to prevent the establishment of the system of Islam and the announcement of the Khilafah. The Ma’had site cited on 30/01/2014 that Erdogan stressed during his meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rohani on “the agreement with Iran on the face of terrorism.” They mean terrorism in the context of the West i.e. the work of any honest and sincere person for Islam. As well as citing this site, which is pro-Iranian policy, has quoted official sources who announced ahead of the arrival of the Turkish delegation that: ” Iran will re-launch its project with its vision for the solution in Syria and will provide a full explanation.” Thus Turkey and Iran have worked to strengthen the relationship to achieve full agreement about the Syrian issue, as mentioned above, and Erdogan’s visit is to complete what both sides have been preparing for to serve the American project.
The second is: The visit of the Turkish Intelligence Chief Hakan Fidan with a delegation of special intelligence. Milliyet Newspaper has reported on 30/01/2014 that “the Turkish Intelligence adviser Hakan Fidan visited Tehran before the arrival of Erdogan as the head of an unofficial delegation and stayed with Erdogan in the same hotel.” The head of Turkish intelligence holding the Syrian file began coordinating with the head of the CIA from the early days of the outbreak of the revolution on the subject of Syria. This means that there will be intelligence coordination between Turkey and Iran to carry out acts that will implement the American project in Syria, such as spying on the movements of the sincere ones in Syria and methods to get rid of them and destroy their movements and work to contain the others to bring them to support the American project to involve them in the ongoing talks between the regime and coalition personnel, the American followers. The head of the Kurdish National Party, Salih Muslim who deals with the Syrian regime, which is an extension of the Kurdish Party of Ocalan, pro-American, has already met with the head of Turkish intelligence. His statements in the Middle East Newspaper on 21/08/2013 said: “We have to wait for the coming days to see how these promises will be translated, especially those made by the Turkish and Iranians regarding fighting the Islamists.”
- This is the main objective of the visit, i.e. the Syrian file. But due to some considerations it is required to be masked with a trade cover, the purpose of this are three:First: To reduce the impact of a friendly relationship with Iran to focus on the commercial and trade agreements. This aims to distract the attention away from Syria in the short while, because the position of Iran is hostile to the Syrian revolution and it is a key element in fighting on Bashar’s side, while Erdogan pretends that he is with the Syrian Revolution! Making the visit focused on a single goal and the Syrian crisis embarrass Erdogan and reveals that his claim that he supports the revolution and its victory are nothing but empty words not followed by action … Therefore by giving the visit a business focus is as if to say that this has no relation to Erdogan’s stance in support of the Syrian revolution which is deception and misleading.
Second: To attempt to mitigate corruption scandals involving those close to him, these scandals revealed that bribes were offered by Iranians to Turkish officials to pass trade deals between Iran and Turkey. Erdogan wants to use the trade agreements that are held to say that these are not bribes, but rather a trade relationship between the two countries and the transfer of funds are legitimate and not contrary to the laws, and that the so-called bribery is nothing but a commission in exchange for doing business with those! And he thinks in this he paves the path for the acquittal of his ministers’ sons who resigned following the scandal, as well as others of his followers and supporters who are being tried on this issue.
And third: Erdogan wants to strengthen confidence in the Turkish economy which was rocked following the corruption scandal that lowered the exchange rate of the Turkish currency significantly, bringing the dollar in this day to equal 2.6 liras; before this crisis it was equal to two liras. It is worth mentioning that when Erdogan cancelled the zeros and announced the new lira traded from 2009, it was equal to one dollar. The scandal affected the Stock Exchange of Turkey, according to unofficial sources that the losses amounted to about 100 billion dollars since the detection of the corruption scandal; which exposed that the Turkish economy is virtual and unstable; and it depends on debts. Turkey’s foreign debt has doubled from 130 billion dollars at the end of 2002, when Erdogan’s party came to power. This amounted to 374.456 billion U.S. dollars at the end of December 2013 (trade and economy page 01/02/2014). Erdogan wanted to handle this situation by holding trade agreements with Iran, and this may benefit him in improving the percentage of votes for the AK Party in the upcoming local elections, where some media poll estimated that the rates of the party sank to 42%, and some even said it sank to 39% due to the deteriorating economic conditions, following the corruption scandal, which Erdogan considered as a coup attempt against his government.
- Therefore, the main objective of this visit is to agree on a political solution in Syria and prevent any movement by the people of Syria towards the rule of Islam … Then there is the packaging for this business objective to ease the embarrassment on Erdogan because he did not want to be seen as hypocritically supporting the Syrian revolution at a time when Iran is supporting Bashar with its brutality, Erdogan does not want to show that his visit to Iran is a conspiracy against the Syrian Revolution… In addition to that, beside this purpose there is justification for the commission as a result of the financial business with Iran that they are not bribes paid to those close to him, this eases the scandal of them … The presence of movement in the trade exchange between Iran and Turkey might improve the conditions of the AKP in the next elections. But Erdogan overlooked or feigned overlooking that the financial scandals and political projects in treading the path to implement American projects cannot be concealed.
هَذَا بَلَاغٌ لِلنَّاسِ وَلِيُنْذَرُوا بِهِ
“This [Qur’an] is notification for the people that they may be warned thereby” [Ibrahim: 52]
2 Rabii’ II 1435 AH
02/02/2014 CE