Turkish Prime Minister: We Must Reach a Common Perspective with Iran

According to Reuters, Ahmet Davutoğlu, the Prime Minister of Turkey, who is in Tehran, stated on Saturday, March 6, regarding his country's relations with Iran that Turkey and Iran must reach a common perspective to end sectarian tensions in the region. He also added that 'we may have differences of opinion, but we cannot change our history and geography.' Speaking at a joint press conference with Eshaq Jahangiri, the First Vice President of Iran, he emphasized that 'it is extremely important for Turkey and Iran to achieve common views to put an end to fratricide in the region and stop ethnic and sectarian conflicts.' According to Iranian media, Eshaq Jahangiri also mentioned during the press conference that 'we may have differences on some regional issues, but we will try to manage these differences to solve regional problems.' On the same day, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, stated that Ankara is trying to improve its relations with Iran, although the two sides have differing views on how to resolve the Syrian crisis. Iran and Russia have supported the Syrian President in the five-year Syrian war, while Turkey, along with Saudi Arabia, has called for the removal of the Syrian President. These statements from the two officials come just days before the resumption of Syrian peace talks in Geneva. Ahmet Davutoğlu arrived in Tehran on Friday, March 5, leading a delegation of ministers from the economy, customs and trade, communications and development, transportation, and energy sectors, and was welcomed by Mahmoud Vaezi, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology. Davutoğlu's visit to Iran follows the Vienna nuclear agreement and comes after a high-level Turkish economic and trade delegation led by Refat Hisarcıklıoğlu, President of the Turkish Chambers of Commerce and Exchange, recently visited Iran. According to Press TV, Iran's English-language state television, Eshaq Jahangiri added during the press conference that 'there are very important bilateral issues between Iran and Turkey that we discussed today. We negotiated on issues such as oil, energy, transportation, customs, preferential tariffs, banking, and tourism, and agreements were reached.' The First Vice President of Iran noted, 'We had set a trade volume target of $30 billion for the two countries, and it was decided that a joint commission would be formed in Turkey within a month to identify and remove all barriers to trade between the two countries. We are striving to achieve this goal.' Mr. Davutoğlu also mentioned during the press conference regarding trade volume that 'the main obstacle to reaching our goal was the sanctions, and now that the sanctions have been lifted, we can easily surpass the $30 billion target.' According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, the trade volume between the two countries was $9.7 billion in 2015. Based on statistics announced by Iranian customs, in the year 1393 (2014), Iran's imports from Turkey were about $4 billion, and exports to this country were about $2 billion. Additionally, Iran exports 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey annually based on a contract signed between the two countries in 1996.