When I sat down for an interview with Iranian ambassador to Ankara Alireza Bikdeli on Friday, Sept. 27, it was a day after John Kerry and Javad Zarif had broken the six-year-long ice between the foreign ministers of both nations by talking face-to-face in New York on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani had failed to meet expectations of a handshake to mark the end of a mute stalemate between the presidents of the United States and Iran since 1979. In a matter of hours, though, that was quickly changed by a telephone call from Obama to Rouhani, signaling a whole new beginning. I was filled with curiosity sitting before the ambassador, trying to grasp how he would describe this new Iranian opening and its potential impact on relations with Turkey.

After all, while there is sincere enthusiasm about this long awaited breakthrough — taking note that Rouhani is significantly different in style and rhetoric than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who in a provocative way sent a letter to then-President George W. Bush in May 2006 to open a direct line of communication with the White House. It might still be misguided to assume that Iran has changed its views on all things touched upon in Ahmadinejad's 18-page letter discussing religious values, history and international relations.

Still, Ahmadinejad had received the support of then-Sens. Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel — who are today respectively the vice president and secretary of defense — that the United States should indeed start direct dialogue with Tehran, just as they had talked to Moscow during the Cold War. It took about seven years to take that first step after the idea first emerged in the Washington beltway.