Turkey has no intention to fan rivalry with Iran

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be off for an important official visit to Iran today. Every exchange of visits between Turkey and Iran are important but this visit has added importance as it comes just after Iran and the West agreed on a groundbreaking nuclear agreement which has been welcomed by Ankara and as the president has recently drawn attention to Iran's involvement in regional trouble spots like Syria, Iran and Yemen.

Turkey, like Iran, is a regional power that is globally respected. The only difference between the two countries is that Turkey follows Atatürk's motto of "peace at home, peace in the world" and thus every step taken by Ankara is geared to promote regional peace and solidarity.

That is why for several decades Ankara has gone out of its way to help Iran counter Western efforts to isolate it in the international community. Turkey has vehemently opposed American efforts to push Iran out of the international community right from the days when the late Turgut Özal was prime minister in the 1980s. Much to the dislike of the Americans Özal always underlined the importance of keeping Iran in the international fold instead of alienating it. Turkey has followed this policy ever since under all successive governments and neither the Erdoğan administration nor the Davutoğlu government is any exception.

As a matter of fact the Americans have put pressure on Turkey to not cooperate with Iran in recent years and have threatened sanctions against Turkish companies cooperating with Iran.

So in the hardest times the Turkish people have stood by their Iranian brothers and sisters thus no one should question our intentions when President Erdoğan says Iranian involvement in Yemen, in Iraq and in Syria should end.

Late Necmettin Erbakan, who can be regarded as the mentor of Erdoğan, travelled to Iran before his demise. He was accused of seeking funds for his ailing Saadet Party at the time. That was a gross injustice to Erbakan. What the veteran leader was doing was in fact carrying out his last mission in the name of Islamic unity to warn Iranian Shiite leaders not to fall into the trap of instigating sectarian conflict with the Sunnis and creating new divisions in the Middle East between Muslims. Time is proving the late Erbakan right.

Erdoğan is merely continuing this mission and means well when he draws attention to Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Iranian parliamentarians have sent a letter to the Iranian president demanding an apology from Erdoğan. All Erdoğan is doing is performing his duty as a friend to warn his Muslims brothers from making any mistakes and triggering sectarian conflict in the Middle East. When you have Iranian National Guards parading all over the Middle East in Syria with Hizbollah in Iraq with instructors helping Iranian "volunteers" help the ailing Iraqi army and in Yemen helping Shiite militants then people will no doubt demand Iran end such involvement for the sake of regional peace.

Some people may think Turkey is alarmed that Iran has forged an agreement with the West on nuclear issues. This is all wrong because those who think like this have to remember that it was Turkey that facilitated the start of these nuclear talks and won applause from the international community. The least the sides can do is to thank Turkey at this stage for making all this possible.

Turkey will only be happy if Iran ends its isolation and can deal with the world in earnest. Then as its neighbor we can freely trade with them, enjoy common economic facilities and make the best of our neighborly ties. Our hands, which were tied with sanctions, will now be free, The trade that we had to do behind the scenes and with limitations will now be done openly and with no restrictions. That will mean much higher trade volumes and more income for Turkey.