The Turkish president with a reputation for being bullish, no-nonsense and tough was clear as he addressed his cabinet on Monday.
He does not want Turkey to be dragged into this war on Iran.
“Our primary goal is to keep our country clear of this fire. Ensuring Turkey’s security and the peace of its 86 million citizens is our greatest priority,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his ministers.
He was speaking the same day a second ballistic missile fired from Iran to Turkey was intercepted by NATO defences.
Debris from the interception landed in a field in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep. A first missile fired days earlier on was also intercepted, this time, as it was headed towards Turkish airspace.
That incident drew words of caution from the Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan who urged their Iranian neighbours not to test Turkey’s patience.
“We are not a country that gets provoked easily,” Mr Fidan said. “We spoke with our Iranian friends and said if this missile lost its way, that’s one thing, but if it continues, be careful…”
The president went further at a Monday Iftar dinner in Ankara for ambassadors. “We do not accept the Middle East geography to be put on the operating table just like a century ago.”
“Last week, and today,” the president said. “The ballistic missiles headed to our country were neutralised on time and the necessary warnings were made very clearly to be Iranian side.
“I emphasise again, that the war should be ended without spreading further in our region.”
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
The Turkish leader insisted he was actively working to lower tensions and had conducted multiple talks with more than a dozen leaders to try to broke a way through the crisis.
On Monday evening it also emerged that Mr Erdogan had had a phone call with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian. Turkey said on social media that this had come at the request of the Iranians. The post said Mr Erdogan had told his counterpart that Turkey “doesn’t approve of unlawful interventions against Iran and Iran’s targeting of the brotherly countries in the region”.
“President Erdogan stated that targeting the brotherly countries benefits no one and that these must all stop,” the statement from his office added.
The US embassy has raised its advice for travelling to the country to Level Four, urging travellers against travel to southeast Turkey and has ordered non-emergency US government employees and family members to leave the Consulate General in Adana “due to security risks”.
Americans in southeast Turkey have been “strongly encouraged to depart now”.
Read more from Sky News:
Iran’s women footballers granted Australian visas
Ayatollah’s son takes supreme power
Security along Turkey’s long border with Iran has been tightened and Sky’s journalists along the border have detected very little movement out of Iran and into Turkey.
There is usually visa-free movement for Iranians wanting to visit Turkey and vice-versa along the three border gates the two countries share. But right now, Iran is only allowing in Iranians.
Our team at a border crossing detected limited movement with higher numbers of Iranians wanting to travel back to their homeland to check on relatives there, than the numbers departing.
Turkey’s disquiet over Iranian missiles near or through its airspace led to Iran’s Ankara ambassador being summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry.
And in a sign of the country’s increasing concerns over tensions, the country has sent six F-16 fighter jets to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as part of a “phased approach to enhancing security”.
The aircraft are expected to operate from Ercan International Airport west of the capital Nicosia and will be equipped to conduct air patrol and air defence missions over the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey hosts American forces in Incirlik airbase in the southern Adana Province but has not allowed its bases or airspace to be used in the war against Iran.
Additional reporting by Turkey producer Zeynep Bilginsoy
