Iran criticises Turkey’s ‘secular Islam’

Financial Times

Iran has criticised Turkey’s secular system of government as an unsuitable example for countries in the Arab spring, in the latest sign of growing tension between the two regional powers.

Ali-Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, told a press conference on Tuesday that Turkey’s model of “secular Islam” was a version of western liberal democracy and unacceptable for countries that he said were going through an “Islamic awakening”.

By contrast Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has travelled to Egypt and Tunisia championing his country’s secular institutions, which he argues allow a conservative, devout social outlook like his own to thrive.

Rivalry between the two neighbours is intensifying as they lock horns over Ankara’s decision to host a Nato missile defence base and the fate of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, as well as the future direction of the Arab spring.

The two countries are economically interdependent and each has problems neighbours, so are keen to downplay tensions. But strains are growing, particularly over their broader ambition to project influence in the region.

The tension, which underlines how much the Arab uprisings have transformed the region’s political landscape, comes little more than 18 months after Turkey defied its western allies and brokered a short-lived compromise deal on Iran’s nuclear programme, the height of its ambition to act as an interlocutor with Tehran.

“They [Iran] support Assad no matter what… They are not happy with the defence shield. They are not happy with us getting involved in Iraq or Syria,” a Turkish official told the FT recently.

He added that while the countries’ rivalry was rarely explicit, “it has always been there”.
Turkey broke with Mr Assad months ago, complaining of broken promises in his regime’s crackdown on its opponents, and is now spearheading the international campaign for him to step down. But the loss of Iran’s main regional ally would be a major setback to Tehran, not least because Syria provides Iran with a connection to Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shia militant group.

But the tension between Ankara and Tehran also takes place against a much broader backdrop. Mr Velayati’s comments came two days after Hossein Ebrahimi, an Iranian member of parliament, became the second Iranian public figure in a matter of weeks to threaten Turkey over its missile defence radar base, saying that if Iran was attacked its first target would be the base being built in Malatya, Turkey.

Top Iranian officials have told their Turkish counterparts not to take such comments seriously – but Iran makes clear its fury at what it regards as the threat the base poses.

Turkish officials reply that the Nato programme does not specifically target Tehran – Iran’s name was excised from the programme’s goals after strenuous Turkish lobbying – and that Nato itself will not share radar information with Israel, Iran’s enemy. But since the US has made clear it will share such information, Ankara’s assurances have failed to placate Iran.

The two countries have also been competing in Iraq, where last year Turkey championed the cause of Iyad Allawi, the secular Shia who sought to be prime minister, the post eventually retained by Nouri al-Maliki, who was given more support by Iran.

This week Mr Maliki told the Wall Street Journal that he was more worried about the Turkey’s role in the region than that of Iran. By contrast, some Turkish analysts see Iran expanding its role in Iraq as it is put on the defensive in Syria.

“We are also downplaying it, but the competition is ongoing, especially in Iraq,” said Suat Kiniklioglu, a former Turkish ruling party MP and the director of the Centre for Strategic Communication, an Ankara-based think-tank. “Once US troops are out this month, competition is likely to increase over Iraq and if Assad falls, Turkish-Iranian tensions might increase even further.”