Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said Turkey is determined to stay out of the expanding Middle East war even as it faces what he described as provocations linked to the conflict.
“I know that we are being provoked and we will be provoked, but this is our objective,” Fidan told The Associated Press in an interview published Saturday. “We want to stay out of this war.”
Fidan’s remarks to AP come as Ankara seeks to avoid being drawn into the conflict triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran two weeks ago and Tehran’s subsequent retaliation across the region.
Fidan said Turkey’s top priority is to avoid becoming part of the conflict even after three missiles believed to have been fired from Iran were intercepted over Turkish territory by NATO air defenses.
NATO shot down a first ballistic missile from Iran on March 4, a second on March 9 and a third on March 13. Iran denied involvement in all three cases.
Turkey is a NATO member, and an air base in southern Turkey hosts NATO forces including US troops.
Iranian officials have denied targeting Turkey, but the available data indicates that the missiles originated from Iran, Fidan said.
Despite the incident, he ruled out a military response, saying NATO’s defensive systems had worked effectively and emphasizing that Ankara’s “primary objective” remains staying outside the war.
Turkey has taken a cautious position on the conflict, criticizing both the US and Israeli strikes on Iran as well as Tehran’s retaliatory attacks on Gulf countries hosting US bases.
Fidan said he has also urged Iranian officials to halt those attacks.
Turkey, which maintains relations with both Washington and Tehran, had previously tried to mediate between the two sides before the war broke out.
“The conditions are not very much conducive” to diplomacy at the moment, Fidan said. He added that Iranian officials feel “betrayed” because they were attacked while engaged in negotiations with the United States over their nuclear program.
Still, he suggested Tehran could remain open to indirect diplomacy.
“I think they are open to any sensible back-channel diplomacy,” he said.
The 57-year-old minister previously served as Turkey’s intelligence chief for more than a decade before being appointed foreign minister in 2023.
He is widely seen as one of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s closest advisers and a key figure shaping Turkey’s foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East.
Fidan also told AP that he does not know the extent of the injuries suffered by Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in a strike earlier in the war but said that “what we know is that he is alive and functioning.”
Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed after the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 during the opening phase of the conflict.
Fidan said the transition briefly created a gap in Iran’s leadership but suggested that the country’s Revolutionary Guards have stepped in to stabilize the situation.
