Turkey summons Iran envoy over claims about president in poem row

ANKARA- Anadolu Agency

Turkey on Dec. 11 summoned the Iranian ambassador over unfounded allegations made about the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to diplomatic sources.

Ambassador Mohammad Farazmand, the ambassador in the capital Ankara, was summoned by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry to hear Ankara’s condemnation of unfounded allegations against Turkey and Erdoğan as well as Iran’s summoning of Turkey’s envoy to Tehran, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

During the meeting, Turkey rebuffed the allegations, stressing that if Iran has discomfort with any issue related to Turkey, it is unacceptable for Iran’s foreign minister to target Turkey via Twitter if there are other channels to communicate.

In addition, it underlined that the manner of approach is not compatible with the close relations between Turkey and Iran, and in fact would only serve those who want to spoil these ties.

Meanwhile, Turkey's communications director on Dec. 12 condemned Iranian authorities over unfair accusations against the Turkish president.

Fahrettin Altun condemned aggressive statements made against President Erdoğan and Turkey on the pretext of a poem deliberately taken out of context.

Reminding that Erdoğan had read a poem by Azerbaijani poet Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh at the Victory Parade in Baku after the liberation of the Azerbaijani territories, Altun added that it was an attempt to produce an artificial tension
through a poem and that Iran's name was not even mentioned in the poem.

He said the poem emotionally reflects on the feelings of people who were victims of the Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani lands.

Altun said instead of sharing the enthusiasm of the rightful victory of a neighboring country and instead of sharing the joy of victory with the people, he found it hard to understand the distortion of the meaning of a poem, trying to create a meaningless tension and displaying an attitude which would please Armenia.

Earlier Friday Iran summoned Turkey's ambassador to the country over a poem Erdogan read out during a ceremony in Azerbaijan.

Ambassador Derya Örs was summoned by Iran's deputy foreign minister to be told Tehran's "harsh condemnation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a written statement.

Örs was also told that Iran urgently expects an explanation, the statement added.

On Twitter, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed that the poem Erdogan read out targeted Iran's territorial integrity.

On Thursday, Erdoğan attended a victory parade in Azerbaijan's capital Baku to mark the country's recent military success in liberating Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions from nearly 30 years of Armenian occupation.