Turkish officials put the death toll from a strong earthquake in eastern Turkey at 51 after rescuers called off search-and-rescue operations in the area.

Fifty-one people were killed by the 6.0-magnitude earthquake that shook eastern Turkey early Monday morning, Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reported.

At least four of the dead were children.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek put the death toll at 57, but crisis desks in both Elazig and Ankara said later that the official toll stood at 51, offering no explanation for the confusion.

The quake caused the most deaths in six villages around the epicenter near the town of Karakocan in Elazig province.

Rescuers struggled to dig survivors from the rubble after the tremor struck at 4:32 am (0232 GMT), razing mud-brick houses in five remote mountainous villages in the mainly Kurdish area and killing whole families in their beds.

The rescuers called off search-and-rescue operations after about eight hours and quickly began to bury the victims.

“According to the information we have, no one remains under the rubble. The work has been ended,” an official from a crisis desk at the governor’s office told AFP.

The tremor left 74 others injured, officials in Elazig said.

According to the officials, 34 of the injured remained hospitalized Monday afternoon, including one in serious condition.

At least 17 miners have been killed after a methane gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in western Turkey, local media reported.

The explosion took place at the Odakoy mine near the town of Dursunbey in Balikesir province at around 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT).

Balikesir Governor Yilmaz Arslan said that the Tuesday evening blast caused a shaft to collapse at the mine, the CNN-Turk television network reported.

Arslan added that 12 miners lost their lives as a result of the explosion, while the other five succumbed to severe burns they had sustained in the incident.

There are no other miners inside and searches have been brought to a standstill, he added.

Rescuers could not enter the mine for several hours due to a high concentration of gas. Air was pumped into the mine to try to dissipate the gas as rescuers waited for experienced miners to arrive.

Turkish Labor Minister Omer Dincer has ordered a thorough investigation of the incident.

Accidents are frequent in Turkish mines due to safety violations, outdated equipment, and high concentrations of methane gas.

Seventeen miners were killed in a methane gas explosion at a coal mine in western Balikesir province three years ago. In Turkey’s worst mining disaster, a gas explosion killed 270 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak in 1992.

Around 20,000 protesters have gathered in the Turkish capital Ankara in support of tobacco workers locked in a labor row with the government and say they will fight to gain their rights.

Tekel workers have been on strike for over two months now demanding changes to their working status. They complain about the loss of labor rights after the privatization of the company and layoffs.

On Saturday, which was the 68th day of the strike, the six major labor unions, opposition party members, and activists across the country travelled to Ankara in a sign of solidarity with the Tekel workers.

The chairman of the labor union Tek-Gida Is, Mustafa Turkel, addressing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that he should know there will be no looking back now. “We are giving up defending ourselves and we are entering a new period of struggle to gain new rights.”

The protestors marched under close police scrutiny through central Ankara to a pedestrian area where hundreds of workers left jobless by the privatization of the state tobacco company have been camping since early December.

The talks between union representatives and the government came to an impasse three weeks ago when the union rejected a government offer of severance pay or contracts with lower wages.

Erdogan has said the protests are illegal and has set a deadline for the workers to end their strike, giving them until the end of February to return to work.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has downplayed US and Israeli efforts to persuade regional countries to join a US-led campaign against Iran.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, on Tuesday, Mottaki deemphasized US-led concerted efforts to rally up support against Iran.

Mottaki advised the Obama administration to learn from mistakes committed by previous governments so that they could take “more appropriate measures.”

“The US record of performance in the region is rife with contradictions and inappropriate measures,” Mottaki said, noting that the US lacked a proper understanding of the conditions in the Middle East.

The top diplomat said that the US fingermark could be traced in any place where a war had broken out or a conflict emerged.

US Foreign Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to the Persian Gulf region to collect the support of the regional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, against Iran.

In Riyadh, the former first lady failed to talk Saudi Arabia into joining the US front. Clinton asked Saudis to reassure China that they will meet any shortfall in Beijing’s oil needs if further UN sanctions are imposed on Iran.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Monday that Chinese officials “need no suggestion from Saudi Arabia to do what they ought to do” over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities.

“If we want security for the region, it requires an Iran at peace and happy with themselves,” the Saudi official added.

In line with US-led efforts against Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also travelled to Moscow on Monday to meet officials in the Kremlin to discuss Iran’s nuclear issue, which Tel Aviv considers an “existential threat.”

The Iranian foreign minister, however, said that Israel’s anti-Iran campaign would get it nowhere.

“The Zionists cannot veil their hateful image in the region through such puppet show,” Mottaki said, reiterating that Israel was already accountable for its past record of activities.

The US has been lobbying for a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, a demand which has not so far received a warm welcome by China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC.

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), says its nuclear work is totally peaceful and within the framework of the NPT.

Tehran has repeatedly assured its neighbors in particular Arab Persian Gulf countries that its nuclear work is peaceful and would pose no threat to them.

After years of extensive inspections, the UN nuclear agency has not found any evidence that can be used to support US claims against Iran.

The Pakistani Federal Minister for Petroleum has declared that Pakistan and Iran will sign a deal in Turkey before February 15 to construct a gas pipeline between the two countries.

Naveed Qamar said that the construction of the pipeline will take between four and five years.

He noted that the natural gas shortage is damaging Pakistan’s economy and Islamabad is determined to start the import of natural gas from Iran as soon as possible, Daily Times reported.

The Pakistani minister’s remarks come as the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke urged Islamabad last month to avoid the deal with Iran.

Holbrooke had said that the US would help Pakistan secure liquefied natural gas supplies should it abandon the planned gas deal with Iran.

Tens of thousands of Turkish workers and civil servants have held a one-day nationwide strike in support of protesting Tekel workers.

On Thursday, six major labor unions, opposition party members, and activists throughout the country spilled out into the streets to back the workers from Tekel, in central Ankara, who have been protesting changes to their working statuses for almost two months, but to no avail.

There were disruptions of public services, especially in transport, in practically every town. The largest crowds were in Izmir, with 20,000 and Ankara, with 15,000.

Union members from the state-run Anatolia news agency held a one-hour strike. Municipal buses operated by union members were also brought to a halt as the drivers joined the strike.

Mustafa Kumlu, the chairman of the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions, held a press conference in front of the Union headquarters in Ankara where Tekel workers have been protesting against the government’s refusal to meet their demands for 53 days.

Addressing the workers, Kumlu said the action was not political nor against the government and urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other ministers to visit Tekel workers so they can get an understanding of their problems.

Erdogan responded by saying that the Tekel workers’ action was ideological and illegal.

According to Turkish law, workers are not allowed to hold a general strike or organize a strike in solidarity with others workers.

“We plan to use police intervention when the time frame we granted them to accept the 4/C status runs out next month,” the Turkish prime minister told reporters in Ankara on Thursday.

Tekel workers officially became unemployed as of January 31 when the government closed the state-owned Tekel units that were not privatized. The government paid workers their severance pay and gave them a month to accept work at other public institutions under Article 4/C of law no. 657, which regulates the working conditions of public employees.

Afghanistan’s neighbors have met in Turkey to seek a common ground on the Afghan war ahead of a major conference slated for Thursday in London.

Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai emphasized that for rebuilding a strong Afghan army financial support, training, equipment, as well as proper education for the Afghan military personnel are needed.

“We began actually from the scratch to rebuild Afghan army. The issues we face are better training, equipment, barracks, places to stay and proper education for the armed forces and the time which should take for the armed forces in order to begin to function as an institution,” President Karzai said.

Among those attending the summit were China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, Britain’s Foreign Minister David Miliband and Paul Jones, the deputy to the US special envoy Richard Holbrooke.

Officials from Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, NATO and the European Union were also in Istanbul. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan did not attend.

Karzai is expected to give details of a program to “reach out” to Taliban militants as part of a political settlement. He met Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari in Istanbul on Monday.

The US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry has publicly claimed that President Karzai is not an adequate strategic partner. He said that the US troop surge in Afghanistan will only deepen Afghanistan’s dependence on the US.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said fighting the Taliban is no longer an option and he plans to reintegrate some of the militants back into society.

After a meeting in Istanbul on Monday with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Karzai told reporters that his plan has been fully backed by Western governments.

On the eve of a major London conference on Afghanistan, Karzai said just fighting the Taliban is no longer an option. “Those Taliban who are not part of Al-Qaeda or other terrorist networks are welcome to come back to their country, lay down their arms, and resume life under the Constitution of Afghanistan,” he added.

Karzai praised Turkish efforts to ease the tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan over allegations of Pakistani support for the Taliban.

When asked if Pakistan had already begun talking to the Taliban, Zardari did not deny it.

The Turkish president said he was satisfied with the progress so far in the trilateral talks.

The London conference on Afghanistan opens Thursday. It is to include talks on international development assistance. Finding funding for a program to encourage Taliban insurgents to lay down their arms is expected to be one of the main items on the agenda.

The Turkish president is hosting another meeting on Tuesday with the two presidents and senior diplomats and ministers from the United States, Iran, Russia, China, and Britain.

As-Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatuh…

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Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri will travel to Turkey on Sunday for an official visit to discuss developments in the areas of defense, health, and agriculture.

Sources close to the premier have said that Hariri and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also hold talks on entry visas for nationals travelling between the two countries.

Hariri’s high-level delegation will include Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami, Defense Minister Elias Murr, Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi, Minister of Agriculture Hussein Hajj Hassan, and Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.

According to the Lebanese daily An Nahar, the two countries are expected to sign agreements on entry visas and defense cooperation.

In April 2008, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman travelled to Ankara in the first visit to Turkey by a Lebanese head of state since 1955.

Iran and Turkey plan to set up a joint industrial zone on their shared border, a Turkish official has announced.

Turkish Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergun made the remarks after a meeting with Iran’s Industry Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian in Ankara on Friday.

Ergun noted that the two sides have agreed to form a committee to discuss the establishment of the joint industrial area in a way to boost economic cooperation.

”A technical committee consisting of 10 persons from each side has been established. The committee will work on the establishment of an industrial zone on the joint border, ” ILNA news agency quoted Erdun as saying.

The Iranian and Turkish officials also discussed ways of increasing industrial cooperation.

Separately, Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan said that Turkey’s exports to Iran reached $1.7 billion in the first 11 months of 2009.

After a meeting with Mehrabian in Ankara on Thursday, Caglayan said Tehran is an important partner for Turkey and that the volume of trade between the two countries has risen to $10 billion in the past eight years.

Thousands of angry protesters in Turkey have staged a demonstration in the capital Istanbul to condemn the Egyptian police crackdown on a Gaza-bound aid convoy.

At least 55 people were injured in clashes that broke out between riot police and Viva Palestina activists at the Egyptian port of El-Arish on Tuesday, after Egypt said it would not allow 59 trucks for the relief convoy to enter the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Following the incident, Turkish protesters poured into streets and assembled in front of the Egyptian consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday.

They carried flags of Palestine and chanted slogans in condemnation of Cairo’s use of force against the human rights activists and Israel’s ongoing siege of the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Led by British politician George Galloway, Viva Palestina has over 200 vehicles laden with basic food items and medical supplies, and is set to break Israel’s months-long closure of the Gaza Strip.

Earlier, Cairo had said it would only permit 157 members of the convoy to drive to Gaza, but later agreed to allow the group’s 400 volunteers to enter the impoverished Palestinian territory.

The Egyptian government’s denial of entry for Viva Palestina trucks came despite talks in which a delegation of Turkish lawmakers sought to convince Cairo officials to open its border to Gaza for the aid convoy.

Turkey continues discussions with Iran over an investment in three phases of Iran’s South Pars gas field as well as a gas swap, the Iranian Oil Minister says.

“Discussion over Turkish investment in the development of phases 22, 23 and 24 of Iran’s South Pars gas field was a high on t he agenda of talks between the two sides,” Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters on Wednesday, after a meeting with Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz in Tehran.

Mirkazemi added that the two sides also discussed the issue of Iran’s gas transit through Turkey.

“Technical committees are to study the details raised during the ministerial meeting,” he added.

The Turkish and Iranian governments signed an agreement in 2008, based on which Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) would produce 20.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from three development phases of Iran’s South Pars gas field.

In October Iran gave TPAO a one-month deadline to finalize the deal and develop phases 22, 23 and 24 of South Pars, but then extended the deadline by three months during a high-ranking Turkish delegation’s visit to Tehran.

South Pars gas field is estimated to hold about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of total world reserves.

Turkey is to invest around USD 3.5 billion to USD 4 billion in Iran’s South Pars gas field, an Iranian Oil Ministry official has said.

A senior Iranian official has called for a united global front against Israel to ensure ‘improvement and justice’ in the world.

Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili who is on an official visit to Turkey, made the request in a Friday meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Jalili said the world needed to “make the optimum use” of the available “legal and political” means to confront Israel, which he stressed was only possible through consolidating regional relations and rallying international support.

Erdogan also underlined the need for regional cooperation, reasoning that foreign forces had failed to restore security to the region. He also said that Muslim countries should not remain silent regarding anti-Islamic moves.

Erdogan also called for the strengthening of bilateral ties between Ankara and Tehran.

Apart from regional cooperation, Iran’s nuclear program was reportedly among the issues discussed at Jalili’s meeting with Erdogan but no details have yet been released.

Jalili arrived in Turkey on Friday following his short visit to Syria, where he held talks with senior Syrian officials including President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem.

The Israeli trade minister begins an official visit to Turkey in hopes of resolving strained bilateral ties with Ankara and soliciting its help in talks with Syria.

Benjamin Ben Eliezer is the first Israeli cabinet member to visit Turkey since relations soured over Tel Aviv’s major military assault on the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year that killed over 1,400 Palestinians, including many women and children.

Eliezer said that he is in Ankara to deliver a message to Turkish leaders on behalf of his prime minister stating that we want to “clear up the atmosphere” that clouds bilateral relations.

He also expressed optimism, in a news conference in Ankara Monday, that Turkey could help mend deteriorating relations in the conflict between Israel and Syria, Anatolia news agency reported.

His comments appeared to contradict Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liebermann, who said last weekend that Turkey’s attitude toward the Israeli government eliminated Ankara as a possible mediator.

In Ankara, Ben Eliezer held talks with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Davutoglu told the Israeli minister that the situation in the Gaza Strip amounted to a humanitarian tragedy and that Turkey expects the situation there to improve.

He also bemoaned the lack of progress in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Syria, Anatolia reported.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran has proposed that it purchase highly enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor to pave the way for more cooperation.

At a press conference in Istanbul after a session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Ahmadinejad said Tehran is seeking dialogue and cooperation not confrontation.

He noted that the Western opposition to Iran’s nuclear program is political and not legal or technical.

“The only way is… cooperation and dialogue with Iran,” the president said, adding, “We made them a proposal: Stop the confrontation with us and choose the way of cooperation and dialogue.”

Following three days of negotiations in Geneva starting on October 19, the major powers put forward a proposal, suggesting that Iran send about 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium stockpile out of the country in exchange for metal fuel rods for the Tehran medical research reactor, which manufactures medical radioisotopes.

Iran has said that it would accept the essential elements of the proposal but has also sought modifications to the formula.

Ahmadinejad said that certain countries had “sided against Iran because they want to rule the entire world.”

“Peaceful nuclear energy is a natural right of Iran,” Ahmadinejad added.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has held meetings with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.

Ahmadinejad arrived in Istanbul on Sunday to attend the 25th Session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The Iranian president first met with Erdogan and then met with Gul.

Ahmadinejad and the two Turkish leaders reportedly discussed important regional and bilateral issues.

The three-day COMCEC meeting opened on Sunday.

COMCEC was established during the Third Islamic Summit Conference, which was held in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1981. COMCEC began its activities during the Fourth Islamic Summit in 1984.

Iran has again turned down an offer by the UN nuclear watchdog requiring the country to ship its enriched uranium to neighboring Turkey.

“This proposal which was made by the chief of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) a long time ago was rejected by Iranian authorities at the time,” a well-informed source told ISNA on Sunday.

The source talking on condition of anonymity said that, “It seems the IAEA chief is trying to take advantage of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Turkey to gain media coverage on a closed issue.”

The UN nuclear watchdog has suggested Turkey as the third country in a draft deal that would provide Iran with fuel for its Tehran research reactor.

The outgoing head of IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei said on Friday that Turkey could enter the proposal as the third-country destination, According to Bloomberg website.

“It should work.” ElBaradei had said on Public Broadcasting’s Charlie Rose television show. “Iran has a lot of trust in Turkey.”

ElBaradei said that the US government would also agree to the suggestion since the Obama administration is “very comfortable with Turkey.”

ElBaradei added that though he has not yet presented the idea to Turkey, he was confident that Ankara would accept the idea to hold the material in IAEA custody.

Iran would then get fuel for its research reactor in Tehran from Russia, he added.

The mid-October nuclear draft discussed in Vienna envisages Iran shipping out some portions of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to be converted into metal fuel rods and returned to the country for the Tehran medical research reactor.

Tehran says that modifications must be made to the draft deal to safeguard the country’s interests.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki reiterated in a televised program late Thursday that Iran’s ‘economic and technical’ concerns should be taken into consideration.

“The Islamic Republic examines all the proposals. We have examined this proposal; we have some technical and economic considerations (which need to be addressed),” he said.

The Turkish president made an inaugural address on Saturday at the ministerial opening meeting of the 25th Session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC).

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported Turkish president called on Islamic countries to enhance economic and commercial relations while strengthening political solidarity.

A delegation from Iran led by Shamseddin Hosseini Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance is participating in the meeting.

Issues such as global financial crisis, cooperation among member states and combat against poverty were high on agenda of the meeting.

A Business Forum meeting was held on November 5 and 6 by the Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in collaboration with the Association of Independent Industrialists and Businessmen.

COMCEC was established during the Third Islamic Summit Conference held in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in 1981.

COMCEC became operational at the Fourth Islamic Summit in 1984.

The committee aims at developing economic and commercial cooperation among the member states.

It has 57 member states and six observer members.

IRI Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Sayyed Shamseddin Hosseini said for the first time, heads of the Islamic countries will study world financial crisis in Turkey.

Hosseini heading a high ranking delegation is in Istanbul to attend the 25th meeting of the Permanent Committee of Social and Economic Cooperation (COMSEC) affiliated to OIC, the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is following up COMSEC activities seriously, he told IRIB reporter.

“Financial and starvation crisis, food security and Energy crisis are the main subjects will be discussed during the ministerial meeting to be held on Sunday,” he said.

Participants of the Sunday meeting will also talk about Islamic stocks too, he added.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to attend the COMSEC meeting in Istanbul, on Monday.

A number of other Muslim states’ leaders will take part in the conference, which will be held to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of COMSEC.

Ahmadinejad is scheduled to hold talks with a number of Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the COMSEC session.