Iran’s Velayati, Turkish Envoy Discuss Regional Developments
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Head of the Strategic Research Center of Iran’s Expediency Council Ali Akbar Velayati and Turkish Ambassador to Tehran Reza Hakan Tekin exchanged views a range of issues, including the latest developments in the region.
During the meeting in Tehran on Sunday, Velayati and Hakan Tekin also discussed the failed coup that rocked Turkey earlier this month.
This is the first time the Turkish diplomat meets a high-ranking Iranian official after the attempted coup in his country.
In a recent interview with the Tasnim News Agency, Hakan Tekin hailed Iran’s stances against the coup, saying that no other government acted like Iran’s in the process of the putsch.
“Iranian officials, including the president and parliament speaker as well as the Iranian nation stood by the Turkish government and nation (during the coup),” he noted.
Since the outset of a coup attempt by a group of military forces in Turkey in the early hours of July 16, Iran voiced its backing for the government of President Erdogan and dismissed any military approach to settling conflicts.
The botched putsch began late on July 15, when a faction of the Turkish military blocked Istanbul’s iconic Bosphorus Bridge and strafed the headquarters of the Turkish intelligence agency and parliament in the capital.
Tanks, helicopters and soldiers clashed with police and people on the streets of the two main cities.
The Turkish president rushed back to Istanbul from a Mediterranean holiday and called on people to defy the coup plotters’ orders of a curfew and stage a rally in support of his government.
More than 300 people were killed from both sides before the coup was officially declared as a failure.
