World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (August 13-15, 2011)

The Guardian published an article headlined ‘Khamenei won't support Assad to the end. It states that Iran and Syria have long been allies, yet as if Khameni realises Assad's situation is not salvageable, he will abandon him. For President Bashar al-Assad, the situation in Syria is becoming worse every day. In the middle of the biggest crisis his regime has faced, he has had one friend on whom he could rely: Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Khamenei has been Assad's steadfast friend, providing him with political as well as material support. But as Assad's position worsens, he will need to rely on Khamenei's regime more, especially since an increasing number of Assad's neighbours are turning against him.
First was Turkey, which used to be a close ally. Now, the Turkish government is putting pressure on Assad and warning him to stop killing demonstrators and to implement reforms as soon as possible. And thenthe Saudis joined in by telling Assad to stop "his killing machine" and withdrawing their ambassador. A number of other Gulf states followed suit. According to Masoud Adrisi, Iran's former ambassador to Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has now changed his position and is asking Assad to respond to his population's demands. The change in tone of reports from Iran could indicate that Khamenei is following Nasrallah, albeit at a slower pace. Sometimes a teacher can learn from his student.
According to The Hurriyet Daily News, a senior Iranian lawmaker’s claim that the number-two figure in a terrorist group had been captured by Iranian security forces put Ankara on alert Sunday due to ambiguity over the identity of the captured terrorist. The state news agency claimed the figure was Murat Karayılan, the number-two in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, after imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu stepped in to clarify the confusion through a phone call to his Iranian counterpart, but received only a denial that Iran had captured Karayılan, with no more information on whom the country might have arrested.
Meanwhile, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party has said he is planning to travel to Somalia on the first day of the Ramadan feast. His announcement follows a similar one from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose aide said Friday that the premier will travel to Somalia this week to draw international attention to the plight of the famine-hit country. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu meanwhile held telephone conversations Saturday with Senegalese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Madicke Niang and Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, Secretary-General Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu. Davutoğlu invited his Senegalese counterpart to an upcoming meeting in Istanbul that will focus on the humanitarian crisis in Africa. The Turkish foreign minister also informed OIC Secretary-General İhsanoğlu about preparatory efforts prior to the meeting, which will be held in Istanbul on Aug. 17. A ship carrying humanitarian aid will set sail from Turkey for Somalia this week. In addition to foodstuffs, five fully equipped ambulances and a generator, the ship will also carry a water-drilling machine and a team that will work to find a solution to the shortage of water in Somalia.
The same news agency published analytical article entitled ‘What happened in Iran yesterday?’ It deals with the fact that Iranian security forces had captured seven members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and that the organization’s “number two,” Murat Karayılan, was among them. But Ankara is not still sure whether the Iranians really captured somebody important from the PKK because Tehran did not tell them whether they captured anybody at all. It was known for sometime that the Iranian security forces, mainly the Revolutionary Guards, have been carrying out operations against PKK training camps in the Kandil Mountains on the Iraq-Iran border.  So, to some Turkish ears, it made sense that Iranians could have simply crossed the border, raided the camps in Kandil (which are at least some 100 km from the nearest entry point from the Turkish border as the crow flies) and could have captured Karayılan, the de facto leader in the absence of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is imprisoned for life.