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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Türkiye has “both the will and the capability” to protect itself amid ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran and Tehran’s retaliation.
Fidan made the remarks during an iftar (fast-breaking dinner) program with members of the media in Ankara, where he assessed developments in the Middle East involving regional countries, focusing on the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict.
Asked whether Iran could attack Türkiye, Fidan said: “Speaking independently of Iran: Türkiye always protects itself. We have both the will and the capability for this.”
“We are carefully continuing the necessary initiatives with our counterparts. We are making intensive efforts to ensure calm and to re-establish an environment of peace. Preserving stability in Iran and in our region in general is critical,” he said.
Fidan said efforts to de-escalate the conflict involve multiple layers of negotiation.
“There is not a single-layer negotiation here; there is a multi-layer negotiation. First, can we bring the warring parties back to the table? When will the attacking side stop or be ready to stop its attacks? The minimum of this is to reach a level of military incapacity that satisfies them. The minimum condition to stop the war. The maximum is regime change,” he said.
Regional tensions escalated Saturday following a joint US-Israeli military campaign against Iran. The strikes killed several senior Iranian officials, including the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Tehran responded with drone and missile attacks targeting US-linked sites in Gulf countries, causing multiple fatalities. Six US service members have been killed, and many others have been injured.
Addressing the possibility of a migration wave from Iran, Fidan said there has been no movement toward Türkiye so far.
“At present, Iran is not allowing its own citizens to leave through the border. Therefore, no one is coming to us from Iran right now. In the previous war, we also saw that the Iranian public did not do anything for 12 to 13 days,” he said.
Fidan also addressed the presence of the PKK terrorist group in Iran, saying Türkiye is closely monitoring developments.
He said Türkiye observes that Kurdish groups of different orientations are coming together to form an alliance and issue joint statements.
“How much they will fight the regime, how much they will fight other ethnicities where they are located, what will happen, what they are targeting, and what may emerge from where, we are closely monitoring and analyzing all of this,” Fidan said.
“The PKK, like all terrorist organizations, is a structure that benefits from weaknesses and divisions in the countries where it is located,” he added.
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