“The recent statements made by some media officials in Turkey have caused confusion among the public opinion in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which should be avoided,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency cited Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Abbas Salehi as saying, in a phone call with Fakhreddin Altun, head of media and communications in the Turkish presidency.
He was referring to last week’s remarks by Mehmet Zahid Sobaci, the director general of Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT, who announced the planned launch of TRT Persian to effectively tackle the “regional balance of power” and “disturb Iran.”
“Recently, there have been impressions of the inadequate statements of one of our media officials, and I would like to seize the opportunity and express my regret to emphasize that the Turkish government’s stable approach is to strengthen friendship with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Altun told Salehi, as cited by Tasnim.
Ahmad Noorozi, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s World Service, urged Ankara on Sunday to “condemn and clarify” Sobaci’s remarks.
While we remain focused on reporting daily massacres by the Zionist regime in Palestine & Lebanon & undistracted by unhealthy & imprudent remarks, we reserve the right to take appropriate reciprocal measures. We at IRIB hope Turkish officials would rightly condemn & clarify it. https://t.co/A9AVp6kwJr
— Ahmad Noroozi (@ANoroozee) October 13, 2024
Turkish officials also slammed Sobaci’s remarks, saying they meant to inflame tensions with Iran, especially amid simmering regional tensions against the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza and increased operations in Lebanon.
Iran and Turkey share friendly relations but have been on opposing sides of several regional conflicts, including the wars fought between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with Ankara heavily backing the former and Tehran supporting the latter.
They have also had diverging views on Syria, where Turkey supports Sunni rebels in the north in operations against the Kurds while Iran backs the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
