Bünyamin Tekin
Ankara is deeply concerned about the rising tensions that began with Iran’s attacks on certain targets in Iraq, increased with attacks in Pakistan and escalated with Pakistan’s attacks on targets in Iran Thursday morning, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Turkey has called on Iraq, Iran and Pakistan to show restraint and common sense.
The Pakistani army said on Thursday that it had carried out precision attacks in Iran using killer drones, rockets, cluster munitions and stand-off weapons that had hit “terrorist” groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front.
The Pakistani strikes came two days after Iranian missiles and drones attacked two bases belonging to the militant group Jaish al Adl, according to Iranian state media.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry called on all sides to resolve the issues in “mutual respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries and with an understanding of friendship and brotherhood.”
“Türkiye does not want the situation between Iran and Pakistan to escalate,” said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at a press conference in Amman on Thursday with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi.
“The attacks perpetrated by Iran are taking place in regions that can be considered Turkey’s spheres of influence. Syria’s Idlib and northern Iraq certainly are. Pakistan is a close ally. Turkey, which is striving for a ‘Turkish axis,’ as [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan recently declared, and which is becoming increasingly assertive in its foreign policy, will inevitably clash with countries like Iran and Russia,” former Turkish diplomat Haşim Tekineş, who shares his insights on Turkey, the Middle East and Turkey-Gulf relations on platforms such as InstituDE and War on the Rocks, told Turkish Minute.
“When Iran and Russia try to demonstrate their power, they mostly do so within Turkey’s sphere of influence. However, given the higher risk of conflict with these countries, Turkey acts more cautiously in these situations; it does not inflate itself as much as it does in its relations with the US and the EU,” he added.