The Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan made the remarks in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran on Sunday.
During the news conference, the top Turkish diplomat said that the the Iranian president Ebrahim Raeisi will travel to his country on an official visit in the near future.
Referring to the 8th meeting of the Supreme Council of Iran-Turkey Strategic Relations, the Turkish Foreign Minister said, "In the near future, we will welcome the Iranian President in Turkey. Today, I had a conversation with Mr. Amir-Abdollahian about this matter."
Fidan said, "Iran and Turkey are two powerful countries in the region and our responsibility is to create peace and stability in the region. In addition to bilateral issues, we discussed Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Ukraine, South Caucasus and Libya."
The Turkish Foreign Minister also said about Syria, "We examined what more we can do in the Syrian issue in a deeper way. You know our viewpoints on the issue of Syria. Our expectations from Syria and cooperation with Syria are completely clear. We want the Syrian citizens who are in our country as immigrants to be returned to their country safely and in complete safety, and for Syria to lay the necessary ground for their return."
He said that, "The Syrian government should cooperate more with us with regard to the PKK issue, and these are among our requirements, and I am sure they are also among Syria's requirements."
Hakan Fidan stated that he had a conversation with his Iranian counterpart about Islamophobia and said, "In recent times, especially in Europe, there have been deliberate heinous attacks against Islamic values and our holy books, the Quran. We talked about this and the actions that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation can take."
In response to a Turkish reporter's question about the recent tensions in Kirkuk, the Turkish Foreign Minister said, "Kirkuk represents a small Iraq in terms of ethnic diversity and religion, and peace and stability here means peace and stability in entire Iraq and affects it. We consider Kirkuk as a manifestation of peaceful coexistence. The government in Iraq led by the prime minister Al-Sudani has brought stability to the country. The fact that these incidents happened in Kirkuk, which is the homeland of people of Turkish origin like ours, is a cause for our concern. We raised our opinions against these tensions and had discussions with the Prime Minister of Iraq and at different levels."
"We call on the Iraqi authorities to end the existence of the PKK in Iraq. All ethnic groups of Kirkuk should have the right to freedom of expression and the grounds for their participation should be laid at the administrative level. Protecting the rights of the Turkmens is important to us and should not become a matter of political games, and we will always defend the rights of the Kirkuk Turkmens," he asserted.
MNA/FNA14020612000176
Your Comment