Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 6, 1993

Even though I had not slept well due to the change in living conditions, I woke up with the sound of the Adhan for morning prayer

from one of the minarets of the Istanbul mosques. I prayed and did not go back to sleep. Until 08:00 AM, I mostly spent my time watching various television channels. It was fresh and interesting; usually non-educational and many were also vulgar and misleading, containing the spirit of Western culture, but with a captivating and highly attractive technique and style.

I had breakfast with Mehdi and Mohsen. The accompanying gentlemen arrived gradually. We talked about everything. At 09:00 AM, we went to one of the hotel halls designated for the leaders' gathering before the official session for introductions and greetings. All the leaders gathered with their foreign ministers. Only with the President of Tajikistan and the Azerbaijan delegation did we have no prior acquaintance or face-to-face meeting. I had greetings and short negotiations with everyone.

We had short negotiations with Messrs. [Süleyman] Demirel, President of Turkey, [Nursultan] Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan, Islam Karimov, President of Uzbekistan, [Saparmurat] Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan, [Askar] Akayev, President of Kyrgyzstan, and [Burhanuddin] Rabbani, President of Afghanistan, and [Nawaz Sharif], Prime Minister of Pakistan, and other figures. We also exchanged greetings with the representative of [Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific=] ESCAP, the representative of the Islamic Development Bank, and the head of the Islamic Conference.

With the start of the session, initially continuing the Tehran summit, I held the chairmanship. Mr. Demirel gave a welcome speech as the host, and I spoke briefly as the chairman and proposed Mr. Demirel as the summit chairman, which was approved. The chairmanship plaque and the gavel for announcing resolutions were moved to their table.

Until noon, time was spent on pre-agenda speeches; first Mr. Demirel, then me, and then from my right side, following the order of the tables which were arranged in a circle, they delivered speeches. Only in my remarks were there mentions of important global issues and criticism of the performance of superpowers and the UN, the oppression of Third World Muslims, and proper ways of remedy; the others mostly focused on specific ECO issues and occasionally their country's issues, etc.

Mr. Islam Karimov criticized the statements of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, which resulted from a misunderstanding. Tajikistan criticized Afghanistan's aid to its opponents in a way and also made a reference to Iran. The representative of ESCAP, the head of the Islamic Development Bank, and the head of the Islamic Conference also spoke and declared their readiness for cooperation with ECO.

A break was given. I went to my room and prayed. Concentrating the summit venue and the guests' residence in one hotel is a good idea and saves time and resources. It is also better in terms of security. Many journalists were present.

After the break, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan presented a report and an action plan that had been approved in the meeting of foreign ministers and was on the agenda for the leaders' endorsement. I gave seven specific executive proposals which were noted; establishing a joint transport company, free zones and border markets, a telecommunications research center, etc. The continuation of the work was postponed to 11:00 AM tomorrow.

After lunch and a short rest, we prepared for bilateral meetings with other delegations, which were very compact, good, organized, and substantive, taking place from 03:00 to 07:00 PM.

First, we went to Mr. Demirel's room. It was a warm meeting. We talked about developing cooperation and removing obstacles to cooperation. They admit that elements in Turkey sabotage relations, and it became clear they are very worried about their Kurdish rebellion and need our cooperation. I said that in the agreement between the two interior ministers of Iran and Turkey, we had a good agreement, but it was handled poorly by your side, and during our interior minister's trip, they acted very badly and offended him. He accepted and it was decided to be rectified. Issues related to the people's rebellion against Aziz Nesin - who translated part of The Satanic Verses - and 37 people being killed, and the subsequent movements of Muslims and secularists that have worried them. There are also demonstrations against the new government that received a vote of confidence yesterday. The talks remained unfinished and it was decided to continue in future meetings.

We went to Mr. Islam Karimov's headquarters. He was very taken aback by my humility and had become humble himself. He was supposed to come to my headquarters, but he had heard that I was going to Mr. Nazarbayev's headquarters; since they are rivals, he had requested that I go to his room; I accepted. Generally, it is important for the leaders who visits whom, and usually in such summits, everyone comes to see me collectively, but because they have come to Tehran and I have not yet returned their visits, they consider themselves creditors.With Mr. Islam Karimov, we talked mostly about communication routes and the roads and their connection to the open sea and Europe through Iran, their participation in the construction of the Sarakhs-Mashhad railway, and reviewing the routes based on the prepared map. The problem for all Central Asian countries is the access routes to other countries, the best of which is through Iran, which they need and acknowledge. In this very meeting, he explicitly said, all roads lead to Tehran. He is worried about the Islamic movement in his country. He got a firm promise from me to go to

Uzbekistan this year.

We returned to our headquarters. [Mr. Nawaz Sharif], the Prime Minister of Pakistan, came. Most of the talk was about the current crisis situation in Pakistan. He said he does not intend to accept early parliamentary elections and said he is not worried about military intervention. He is very upset with Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, [the President of Pakistan], and is worried about Indian actions in Kashmir and... but reports indicate further crisis in the coming days. Because of this, he did not stay in Istanbul for the continuation of the summit and returned to Pakistan.

The Afghanistan delegation came. Mr. Rabbani is extremely frustrated with [Abdul Ali] Mazari and the [Islamic] Wahdat Party. He claims that [Gulbuddin] Hekmatyar, [leader of the Hezb-e-Islami], is ready to accept [Ahmad Shah] Massoud as Minister of Defense and says General [Abdul Rashid] Dostum is also with him, but he is so distrustful of Hekmatyar that it does not seem they will reach serious cooperation.

Mr. Niyazov, [the President of Turkmenistan], came. He recounted his negotiations with the Americans and claims they also agree that the Turkmenistan gas pipeline to Europe should pass through Iran and want to participate in the implementation with Iran and Turkmenistan and has sent a message that they are ready to cooperate with Iran. I said we have no objection to technical, commercial, and economic cooperation, but until mutual trust is established, further cooperation is not possible. He wanted me to agree that the summit of Caspian Sea littoral states be held in Ashgabat. He informed me that some leaders, due to permanent alcohol addiction, do not want to be in Iran; I accepted. He said that soon they will write many things about me and Iran in their textbooks; it seems he is our close friend.

The President of Kyrgyzstan came. Since he was recently in Tehran, we did not have much to say. He said he was deeply impressed by the spirituality of the shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in Mashhad and was very thankful for the possibility of the trip to Mashhad. Regarding the events in Azerbaijan, almost all of them are inclined towards the new group. They are not pleased with the People's Front and Elchibey personally. He and others are worried about the events and crisis in Russia, but they claim that the restoration of the past Soviet empire will not happen, though Russia is pregnant with crisis and changes. He insisted on my trip to Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan.

The President of Tajikistan came. He expressed much Islamicity and complained about the Islamic Party and claimed to be repairing mosques and religious sites and reviving Persian and expressed happiness with my speech today and said the Tajik delegation was very happy that they could benefit from the speech without an interpreter. He asked for help to create peace in Tajikistan and resolve problems. I was warm with them and advised them to have kindness and forgiveness toward the opposition. He did not expect us to react this way.

We went to the headquarters of the President of Kazakhstan. The talks were on more cooperation and he requested that we buy weapons from them. I said we have no contract with Russia and the delegation sent there did not have good results. It was decided that during my trip to Kazakhstan, the issue would be examined closely. We also decided to expedite the transfer of oil through Iran.

The delegation of the Republic of Azerbaijan came. [Mr. Rasul Guliyev], the Deputy Prime Minister, is happy that they were accepted into the summit. Given Turkey's support for Elchibey, he spoke of his problems and the ignorance of the People's Front and Elchibey personally and criticized their policy of opposition to Iran and expressed trust in Iran and expected any kind of help to solve their problems, and in response to the question of why Russia, which is on good terms with Heydar Aliyev and Surat Huseynov, does not prevent the continuation of Armenian aggression, he had no proper answer. He requested that for now we do not demand payment for our gas and that we pay the price for the delivered diesel. In the summit speech, he only spoke of help from Iran and Turkey and criticized the lack of help from others. Almost all of them praised my speech significantly.

Around sunset, we went to the "Dolmabahçe" building for a dinner banquet. It is a massive palace built during the Ottoman era by reclaiming the sea; we visited different parts of the palace as a group; it is interesting. They said fourteen tons of gold were used in it. We took a group photo on the stairs. About seven hundred Turkish figures and ambassadors participated.Out of respect for us, they had waived many of the usual Turkish banquet customs. They removed alcoholic beverages and did not invite any female singers. Few women were invited, and their seats were placed at a distance from me, and they only performed a music and poetry program that included Iranian songs, which surprised the audience. Basically, in that ceremony, Mr. Demirel tried to stay close to me, except at the dinner table where, since his wife is hijablous and was to his left, at our own suggestion, people were seated between me and Demirel so that my distance from the unveiled woman would be greater, but due to the small number of waiters and the large number of guests, the intervals between dishes were very long and tiring.

We sat for about two hours. I got tired, and we had not prayed yet. On the pretext of prayer and a phone call, I obtained Mr. Demirel's consent to personally leave the banquet early; despite the presence of the guests, he came to see me off as far as the outside of the palace. He had not behaved this way with any of the other leaders who left the meeting after me. I prayed. Dr. Rouhani also came with me, and I told Dr. Velayati to stay until the end of the banquet. To make up for the lack of sleep from the previous night, I went to bed early.