As Türkiye’s eastern neighbor, Iran has been gripped by days of protests, and Ankara is worried that the situation may evolve into a state where Western powers would justify any meddling.
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), highlighted this risk. Addressing lawmakers of the MHP at a parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, he said what was happening in Iran was beyond mere protests.
“What we should really pay attention to is an organized, multi-actor provocation by (foreign) intelligence and imperialists,” he said.
“Any unrest, division in Iran threatens Türkiye and the regional countries. Iran’s political, territorial integrity, peace and stability are a matter of life and death for Türkiye,” he said.
Two countries trace back to their relations to the Ottoman times, and after multiple campaigns by the sultans, Ottomans and Iranians managed to carve a state of peace that endured for centuries, although their interests clashed at times.
A spokesperson for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has reiterated that Türkiye did not want chaos in Iran on Monday. Çelik told a news conference that foreign interference, particularly provocations encouraged by Israel, would only trigger deeper instability across the region. Çelik said Ankara does not deny that Iran faces social and political challenges but stressed that solutions must emerge through Iran’s own internal dynamics and national will.
“There are problems in Iranian society and state life, but these must be resolved by the Iranian people themselves, through their own mechanisms, as expressed by the Iranian president,” Çelik said.
He cautioned that outside intervention has historically produced destructive outcomes, warning that any attempts to exploit unrest in Iran through external pressure or provocation would lead to far greater crises.
He said Israel’s actions in the region demonstrate a pattern of fueling instability beyond its borders.
“Foreign interventions always make things worse,” he said. “We clearly see that attempts, especially those encouraged by Israel, to stir chaos in Iran would have serious and dangerous consequences for the entire region.”
Türkiye has supported Iran against Israel’s strikes in the past and adheres to a stance of independence for Iran in its own domestic affairs. Similarly, it has criticized the U.S. abduction of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.
Bahçeli said on Tuesday that, “Powers involved in covert operations to paralyze Iran, powers attempting to corner Iran with political, military and economic threats are obvious and their dirty goals are well-known. This is a threat familiar to us,” likening riots in Iran to the 2013 Gezi Park riots in Türkiye.
The U.S. and Israel adopted an aggressive stance against Iran and wait for more chaos in Iran to justify a direct intervention, and this brings us closer to a global, conventional war. We should oppose incidents in Iran on moral grounds, as part of our political, cultural and moral ties with Iran. The turmoil in our region, by the Zionist, imperialist hands, deepening ethnic and sectarian strife, will not be favorable. It is time to stand united (against those threats),” he said.
Bahçeli also said that he was assured that the people of Iran would not allow “imperialism’s project to install puppets to run Iran” and would not fall for “such evil plots.”
“They won’t be subcontractors of imperialism,” he concluded.
