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Foreign Ministers Mevlut Cavusoglu (L) of Turkey and Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran attend a meeting in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 20, 2016. (photo byREUTERS/Maxim Shemetov)

Author:Fehim Tatekin Posted February 24, 2017

For hundreds of years, since the 1639 Qasr-e Shirin Treaty, Turkey and Iran have maintained a pretty peaceful coexistence, not letting occasional political spats and regional rivalry affect their economic relations. Both sides have become masters of not crossing critical thresholds in their relations. But political tensions arising from the Syrian civil war have eroded that mastery, and economic relations are now threatened.

Sometimes, Turkey just can't seem to help itself. Other times, its diplomatic lapses seem intentional. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu both managed to insult Iran recently in high-profile venues, resulting in high-profile economic damage.

In a statement last week in Bahrain, Erdogan accused Iran of trying to split Iraq and Syria by resorting to Persian nationalism, which he said had to be prevented. Cavusoglu, speaking Feb. 19 at the Munich conference, said, Iran is trying to create two Shiite states in Syria and Iraq. This is very dangerous. It must be stopped.

Not surprisingly, Tehran was angry. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi replied strongly, saying those who support terror organizations, who cause bloodshed, who lead the way to tensions and instability in the region cannot escape from their responsibility by accusing others. We are acting patiently, but there is a limit to that. If our Turkish friends repeat these type of remarks, we will have to respond.

The tension cast a shadow over the Turkey-Iran Business Forum scheduled for Feb. 25 in Tehran. Turkey was going to be represented by Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci, and Iran by Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh. Because of the polemics between the two countries, Zeybekci canceled his trip. The forum was then postponed. It's not known if new dates are being set.

This was major. The Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK) had arranged for executives from about a hundred Turkish companies to attend. Officials also had planned during the forum to inaugurate the Turkish Trade Center in Tehran.

Turkish businessmen had been waiting for such a forum, hoping to find lucrative opportunities in energy, petrochemicals, mining, construction, retailing, logistics and tourism as some sanctions on Iran are being lifted. DEIK issued a statement saying that the meeting could have been instrumental in increasing the volume of trade to the desired level of $30 billion in two years.

Turkish companies that had not already prepared to go to Tehran soon after the sanctions started being lifted aren't sure if they can manage their projects in Iran. None of them have pulled out, but they are taking their time to engage, worried that doing business in Iran might not be as easy as before. For example, the Iranian Civil Aviation Department has been delaying the issuance of permits for charter flights to Turkey. This began before the current tension arose, but it contributes to economic uncertainty and caused severe disappointment in Turkeys tourism sector, which hosts an average of 1.5-2 million Iranians every year.

Organizers felt the Turkey-Iran Business Forum could have gone a long way toward facilitating trade.

It's important to understand the background of the tension between Ankara and Tehran. No doubt, Turkey is trying to find someone to blame for the disaster in Syria and for Ankara losing its influence in Iraq. Turkish officials try to explain their situation by saying they could succeed were it not for Iranian interference. But there are three other important factors.

First is Turkeys desperate need for hot money from the Gulf to ease its shortage of market funds. Ankara hopes that by adopting an anti-Iran stance, relations with Shiite-phobic Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries will be smoother and profitable.

Second, while looking for markets for its all-important defense industry, Turkey has noted that Gulf countries spend generously on armaments. The political masterminds in Ankara are trying to promote an exaggerated sense of the "Iranian threat" to encourage Gulf countries to buy Turkish weapons.

Turkeys pro-Islamic daily, Yeni Safak, a virulently anti-Iran newspaper, has run headlines such as Before missiles hit Mecca and Before Mecca wars begin, before tanks surround Kaaba that reflect the Turkish governments motivation.

Ibrahim Karagul, the dailys editor-in-chief, wrote Feb. 16, "Though the US and Europe largely supply the region's defense needs, and billion-dollar arms agreements are being made with these countries," Turkey's defense industry will see new opportunities, partly because of rising security threats.

"It is no longer speculation that the Gulf funds that were directed toward different sectors until now are going to create a new wave in Turkey's relations with the region," he wrote. Joint defense agreements also breed rapport, though "the situation is beyond economy for Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries like Qatar and Bahrain; these countries are under serious threat.

He added, There is concern about an Iranian expansion that would target the entire Arab world, which it feels no need to hide, with plans to take over Mecca. The Iranian missiles sent through Yemen to Jeddah and Riyadh have revealed Tehran's intentions."

The third factor is a desire to grab a partnership opportunity with the new US administration. Gulf countries are delighted that President Donald Trump has again made Iran a target. This is the concept Erdogan has his eyes on.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/02/turkey-iran-tensions-hit-turkish-economy.html

Read the original here:
Is Iran-Turkey tension intentional? - Al-Monitor

After negotiations between the officials of Iranian and Malaysian central banks, the two countries agreed to integrate their bank card systems and discussed conducting business in local currencies. Iranian banks are now connected to TARGET 2 and trade with Europe is underway. Iran is also eager to expand its banking ties with Malaysian banks, said Gholamali Kamyab, the deputy governor for foreign exchange affairs at the Central Bank of Iran, as reported by IBENA. TARGET2 is an interbank payment system for the real-time processing of cross-border transfers throughout the European Union. An Iranian banking delegation is in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, meeting with the senior managers of Malaysian commercial banks and officials of the Malaysian central bank (Bank Negara Malaysia). The Iranian delegation is headed by Kamyab who held a meeting with the Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia Adnan Zaylani Zahed. The deputy governor of CBI explained the situation of Irans economy after the sanctions were lifted and assessed ways of boosting bilateral trade relations. Kamyab noted that the Central Bank of Irans policies are aimed at easing business ties with other nations and using local currencies for trade. In line with the aforementioned policy, we welcome the interest of Malaysian banks to open accounts in Iranian commercial banks in local currencies. Malaysian banks can also transfer money in the currencies of other countries, if the Iranian side approves, he added. Adnan Zaylani Zahed also expressed Malaysias interest in transferring money in Japanese yen and Chinese yuan. Currently Malaysia is using yen and yuan for business and transfer of cash. Trade ties between the two countries looks promising under this framework, he said. The delegation also included representatives from Iranian banks, Melli, Mellat, Pasargad, Keshavarzi and Middle East. They had back-to-back meetings with the officials of Malaysian banks like Islam Bank, Exim Bank, Me Bank and CIMB on boosting bilateral relations.

Read more:
Iran, Malaysia Integrating Banking Transactions - Financial Tribune

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and playwright Bahram Beyzaie was censored for decades in his home country and was not able to screen or publish many of his artistic works.

Now a Stanford lecturer, Beyzaie directed and staged a nine-hour, two-part play last spring as part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts initiative, launched by the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies.

Go to the web site to view the video.

Video by Kurt Hickman

As part of the Stanford Iranian Studies Program, the initiative on Art, Social Space and Public Discourse in Iran features art exhibitions, film screenings and music.

He said he felt a freedom he once believed was unattainable.

It was hard to leave my country, Beyzaie said. I love my country but this was not believable for me to do in Iran.

Since the Stanford Iranian Studies Programs inception 10 years ago, its director, Abbas Milani, has worked on bringing artists like Beyzaie to Stanford to highlight different forms of art in Iran and promote discussion about Iranian and Iranian-American culture.

One of the most telling facets of every culture is the art, said Milani, who is also a co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. And you cant understand Iran today unless you understand what is happening on the street, in the underground theaters, poetry readings, fashion shows and raves. All of that is part of Iran.

Irans rich history of culture and art can be overlooked against the backdrop of its governments actions, notably its targeted censorship toward art and film after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

AcclaimeddirectorBahramBeyzaie(center),theBitaDaryabariVisitingProfessorofIranianStudies,sharesthestagewithhisactorsafteraStanford performanceoftheIranianplay Tarabnameh. (Image credit: Vahid Zamani)

Beyzaie, 78, whose films focus on Irans history and cultural identity, lived under the governments censorship for many years while working as the director of the Theater Arts Department at Tehran University. But life was hard for him and his family, he said.

It was very difficult to survive, Beyzaie said.

In addition to being constantly censored, Beyzaie was eventually banned from teaching at Tehran University because of his parents Bah faith, which came under persecution after the Islamic Revolution. The followers of that religion, which is considered to be the worlds youngest monotheistic religion, have faced harassment, discrimination and even execution in Iran.

When an opportunity to teach at Stanford arose six years ago, Beyzaie said he had to leave to ensure a better future for his then 14-year-old son, who wouldnt have been able to get an education in Iran because of their familys association with the Bah faith.

It was disappointing, but we had to leave, Beyzaie said.

Beyzaie said his first time putting on a play at Stanford was liberating.

Thats when I realized: Oh, we could do that here? Oh, we are free, Beyzaie said. It was a mixture of happiness and sorrow.

In addition to attracting Iranian artists and scholars, the Iranian Studies Program also has created several initiatives, including sponsoring the recent effort on Art, Social Space and Public Discourse in Iran, to bring art exhibitions, film screenings and music from Iran to Stanford and the surrounding communities.

The new effort aims to showcase different types of Iranian public art, stimulate discussions about public art and its definition, and foster collaborations between Iranian artists and artists in the San Francisco Bay Area through new classes, events and panels.

One of our objectives with the initiative was to open a window to Iran that goes beyond media representation and what occupies contemporary popular imagination, said Ala Ebtekar, a lecturer with the Department of Art and Art History, who is leading the new initiative. It is precisely in these public practices that we find connections and similarities to other social practices across cultures.

A unique aspect of Iranian arts history is Naqqali, a genre of oral storytelling primarily performed in coffeehouses. As part of this performance, a Naqqal, which means a storyteller in Farsi, retells a well-known story from classical Persian poetry.

This celebrated art form, which was unofficially banned in Iran for some time after the 1979 Revolution largely because of its association with political activism, was added in 2011 to UNESCOs List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

But in recent years, new generations of artists in Iran have rediscovered the practice of Naqqali as well as experimented with other forms of public art, such as graffiti.

The art scene in Iran is booming right now, Ebtekar said. Galleries are popping up everywhere.

Bringing attention to the old and new art forms of Iran was part of the goal of a three-day symposium in the fall that kicked off the public art initiative. As part of the event, two Naqqals performed at Darvazeh Ghar coffeehouse in Tehran, which hasnt held a Naqqali performance since pre-revolutionary time. Segments of the show were broadcast live at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

This special performance reignited the performative potentialities of the site and introduced a unique type of storytelling to a new audience at the Asian Art Museum, Ebtekar said.

As part of the initiative, Ebtekar is also teaching a course, Public Space in Iran: Murals, Graffiti, Performance, where Stanford students learn about Irans older traditions of performing arts as well as contemporary art practices.

In the course, students interacted with Ghalamdar, a U.K.-based Iranian graffiti artist, who created three new art pieces during his month-long stay at Stanford, one of which was displayed inside the Coulter Art Gallery at the McMurtry Building. His other two works, on which he collaborated with local artists, are murals that are located in San Franciscos Mission District and at Jack London Square in Oakland.

The Iranian Studies Programs art initiatives have not only illuminated the current art scene in Iran but also brought together members of the Iranian diaspora community, a large portion of which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A recent highlight of that collaboration was the nine-hour performance of the traditional Iranian play Tarabnameh last year. Directed by Beyzaie, the play was staged with an ensemble of 40 largely nonprofessional actors, most of whom were part of the Iranian diaspora in the U.S. or in Europe. Some traveled directly from Iran to participate in the play, which Milani described as a historic moment for Iranian theater.

Beneath the radical veneer of Irans current regime, there is another Iran, Milani said. Appraising the full complexity of Iran requires understanding the country in its entirety, and art and cultural history is essential to that.

Read the original here:
Stanford's Iranian Studies Program highlights Iran's art, culture via new initiatives - Stanford University News

MOSUL AIRPORT, Iraq (AP) Iraq's air force struck Islamic State targets inside Syria for the first time on Friday as Iraqi troops on the ground pushed into western Mosul, the last major urban stronghold held by the Sunni militant group in Iraq.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the airstrikes in a statement, saying the air force hit the border towns of Boukamal and Husseibah, strikes that came in response to recent bombings in Baghdad claimed by IS and linked to the militants' operations in Syria.

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Iraq strikes IS in Syria as Iraqi forces enter western Mosul - Sentinel-Tribune

National Guard veteran Amie Muller believed deployments to Iraq caused the cancer that killed her.

She worked and lived next to burn pits that billowed toxic smoke night and day at an air base in northern Iraq. After returning to Minnesota, she began experiencing health problems usually not seen in a woman in her 30s.

Muller died a week ago, nine months after being diagnosed with Stage III pancreatic cancer. On Friday, more than 800 of her friends and family gathered at a memorial service in Woodbury to remember the life of the 36-year-old mother of three. A pastor noted her loss was both painful and seemingly incomprehensible.

I wish there was a simple way to explain what has happened to Amie. Why Amie is gone, said Pastor Lisa Renlund. Life truly isnt that simple. It can get messy. It can feel complicated. It can seem unfair.

But others also are remembering Mullers battle to win recognition from the U.S. government for victims of the burn pits, which have the potential of becoming the Iraq and Afghanistan wars equivalent of the Vietnam Wars Agent Orange. It took nearly three decades for the U.S. government to eventually link the defoliant used in Vietnam to cancer.

Muller first told her story in the Star Tribune last year shortly after she was diagnosed.

In an interview in August, she spoke about the frustrations of a life put on hold. Fatigued from chemotherapy and complications from medical procedures, she also talked about getting the word out about what she believed is the burn pits toxic legacy.

Its kind of like what youd imagine what hospice would feel like, where you are just waiting and waiting and you dont have any energy, she said. But I want to make sure other people are getting their voices heard, too.

Flames stoked with jet fuel

In 2005 and in 2007, Muller was deployed to Balad, Iraq, with the Minnesota Air National Guard, embedded with a military intelligence squadron. The burn pit near her living quarters there was one of the most notorious of the more than 230 that were constructed at military bases across Iraq and Afghanistan before their use was restricted in 2009. Items ranging from Styrofoam to metals and plastics to electrical equipment to human body parts were incinerated, the flames stoked with jet fuel.

Covering more than 10 acres, Balads burn pit operated at all hours and consumed an estimated 100 to 200 tons of waste a day. It was hastily constructed upwind from the base, and its plumes consistently drifted toward the 25,000 troops stationed there.

Muller fatigued easily after returning home and began to wonder whether a host of ailments from migraines to fibromyalgia were connected to her military service at Balad. She was diagnosed with cancer last May.

Julie Tomaska deployed with Muller in 2005 and 2007 and the two lived side by side. Shortly after coming home, Tomaska, too, suffered from chronic fatigue, headaches and digestive problems. Her disability claim with the VA was approved with a diagnosis of environmental exposures.

The two became almost inseparable after Muller was diagnosed. Tomaska helped navigate the paperwork for Mullers disability claims and attended treatments with her at the Mayo Clinic, shooting selfies in the exam room.

She was at her friends bedside when she died. Now, Tomaska and Mullers family hope to establish a foundation for military families affected by pancreatic cancer.

Burn Pits Act

I promised her that I would make sure that everybody knew about this, she said. Its hard to be so proud and happy about the military accomplishments you made when you feel like you died because of this, and because were having friends drop like flies.

When we came home we felt like we were lucky and it just doesnt feel like that anymore.

The Department of Veterans Affairs position on burn pit exposure has not changed. It believes research has not established evidence of long-term health problems.

But there has been movement. A registry for service members based on where they were stationed during deployments now includes more than 100,000 people.

Earlier this month, U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced bipartisan legislation, the Helping Veterans Exposed to Burn Pits Act, that would create a center of excellence within the VA to better understand the health effects associated with burn pits and to treat veterans who become sick after exposure.

Klobuchar said she is encouraged by work being done at the Minneapolis VA looking at links between exposure to toxic substances and the use of anti-inflammatories for treatment.

Whats important to me is that we keep doing this research and we dont close our eyes and pretend that its just a coincidence that these veterans came home with these illnesses, she said. Its a sad chapter, whether it was Agent Orange or Gulf War Syndrome, that people had to wait this long. We dont want this to happen again with burn pits.

Joseph Hickman, a veteran and author of The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of Americas Soldiers, sees the legislation as progress but still worries that many veterans are being stonewalled and their benefits claims delayed, often until after they have died.

When we sent these veterans to war, we didnt have any questions for them. We just sent them off and had total faith in them, Hickman said. Now they are coming home and they are being questioned by the VA and the [Department of Defense] and a lot of them are being told they are not being honest about their illnesses. We had so much faith in them when they left, weve got to have faith in them now and believe them.

Showed heart and grace

At Mullers memorial service Friday, honor guards stood solemnly, their heads bowed, next to a portrait and an urn containing her remains. The Patriot Guard stood outside in a growing snowstorm as mourners entered for the services at Crossroads Church in Woodbury.

Photos of Mullers life that included Caribbean family vacations and military deployments and training were projected on giant screens in the sanctuary.

Retired Lt. Col. Audra Flanagan noted that Muller was trained as a military photojournalist. She created a program to honor fallen service members by providing a video and photographic record for family members. She covered services for those who were killed in action or took their own lives, documenting the dignified transfer of remains, military funerals and honor guards.

She covered services for a Tuskegee airman and for a soldier killed in the Fort Hood mass shooting. As a graphic artist, she designed the states Gold Star license plate for spouses and parents of military members killed in active service.

No one could have honored our fallen service members with the same heart and grace as Amie, Flanagan said.

Muller will be buried Monday at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

Read more:
Hundreds say goodbye to Amie Muller, who sounded alarm over toxic risks for Iraq veterans - Minneapolis Star Tribune