Iran’s ambassador lashes out at Turkish media

ANKARA

Iranian envoy to Ankara Hosseinpour warns the Turkish media.

Outgoing Iranian ambassador to Ankara, Bahman Hosseinpour, has warned the Turkish media to be careful not to deteriorate relations between the two countries. 

“There are some who want to damage ties between the two countries. Be careful for your writings not to deteriorate ties,” Hosseinpour said Feb. 19 in a farewell dinner for the diplomatic press reporters in Ankara, daily Hürriyet has reported.

Hosseinpour’s comments came in response to a Today’s Zaman reporter’s question. The ambassador lashed out at the newspaper, accusing the media group of trying to strain relations between Turkey and Iran.

‘All this news against Iran’

“[While publishing news about Iran] the Zaman daily does not pay any attention and publishes articles seeking to strain the relations between our two countries. Whenever there is negative news about Iran, this media group tries to make sure the West learns about it immediately. The media group is publishing all these news [pieces] against Iran,” the envoy said, according to a report from Today’s Zaman.

“We know very well where this media group takes its directives from,” he said, referring to Today’s Zaman reports without further elaborating on his claim. The ambassador also expressed discomfort over articles published in not only the Zaman daily, but also in Today’s Zaman regarding the rising number of Iranian firms in Turkey. 

“Zaman is publishing such articles as if the Iranian firms established in Turkey are serving other purposes. But this media group does not raise any opposition to Western or Zionist capital coming to Turkey,” said the ambassador.