This is an excerpt from Turkey Briefing, Al-Monitor's weekly newsletter covering the big stories of the week in Turkey. To get Turkey Briefing in your inbox, sign up here.
ANKARA — Turkey’s highly cautious tone over attacks this week by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on Iraq and Pakistan reflects Ankara’s attempt to safeguard its bilateral ties with Tehran amid regional escalations.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, which usually does not shy away from expressing its position in regional conflicts, kept notably mum over the Iranian attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan and Pakistan earlier this week.
But the silence was broken after Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes inside Iranian territory late Wednesday. In a carefully worded statement released Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry avoided pointing fingers and called on Iran, Iraq and Pakistan “to act with common sense and show restraint.”
