Turkish Court: Iran is Terrorist State

Methan Demir, The Jerusalem Post:

Following years of investigations based on intelligence reports, a Turkish court declared on Friday that terrorism is the instrument of Iran's foreign policy and that Teheran will not hesitate to use terrorism against its rivals in order to achieve its goals. The Ankara court made public a key report detailing the parts played by nine Islamist militants in a long-running case over the murders of four prominent, pro-secular intellectual writers in the 1990s.

According to the report, neighboring Iran deliberately trained Turkish Islamist radicals and supported terrorist activities aimed at undermining Turkey's strictly secular order.

"Terrorism, which is an instrument of Iran's foreign policy, has been frequently used by that country against Turkey because Teheran sees Turkey as a major rival in the region," the court document said. READ MORE

The court said that following the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran became the center of international terrorism while Teheran promoted itself as the natural and spiritual leader of global Islamist revolutionary activities.

According to Turkish intelligence sources, the main suspect in the murders of the writers, Ferhat Ozmen, went to Iran in 1988, joined the so-called "Jerusalem Army" and was trained in assassination, use of weapons, radio-controlled explosives and bomb making.

The Turkish prosecution has described the Jerusalem Army as a group within Iran's Revolutionary Guards which works to export the Islamic revolution to neighboring countries.

Last month, Turkey's key National Security Policy Document singled out Iran as a potential source of instability and uncertainty in the region.

The story implicating Iran in the murders provoked large headlines in the three Turkish mainstream newspapers - H rriyet, Milliyet and Radikal. The papers said that Teheran's ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile activities are a severe threat to the entire region.