A photograph of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set on fire by a protester outside the Iranian embassy in London on January 12, 2026. Illustrative image. PHOTO: Yui Mok / PA Images / Profimedia
Turkey warned on Monday that any foreign intervention in Iran risks leading to further crises in that country and the region, and urged negotiations between the US and Iran to resolve existing issues, Reuters reports.
Iran is facing its biggest demonstrations since 2022, and US President Donald Trump has threatened to get involved if force is used against protesters.
NATO member Turkey does not want to see chaos in Iran, “despite certain problems in Iranian society and government,” said Omer Celik, spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“As President (Iranian Masoud) Pezeshkian said, the problems must be solved through the internal dynamics of Iranian society and the national will of Iran,” the spokesman said in a press conference after an AKP meeting, according to Agerpres.
“We believe that a foreign intervention will lead to even worse consequences, and that intervention, provoked by Israel in particular, will lead to even greater crises,” Celik added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel was closely monitoring the protests in Iran. “We hope that the Persian nation will soon be freed from the yoke of tyranny,” Netanyahu added.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the protests, which turned from grievances over economic hardship into defiant calls for the collapse of deeply entrenched clerical institutions, sent a very strong message to Tehran.
“These demonstrations, which stem from real reasons and structural problems, are also being manipulated from abroad by Iran's rivals,” Fidan said on public broadcaster TRT on Friday.
“What we are trying to do (…) is to support an agreement with Iran that will benefit both parties, primarily the Americans, because the stability of the region depends on it,” the Turkish Foreign Minister also declared.
The US-based human rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 544 people and the arrests of 10,681 since the protests began on December 28. The Reuters news agency notes that it could not independently verify these figures.
Trump is under pressure to act in Iran amid bloody crackdown. What it can do is complicated and interesting
The new balance sheet of the protests in Iran, announced by human rights activists. More than 10,000 people were arrested / Key talk in Washington
