Erdogan: Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian is of Turkish origin

Shafaq News/ On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Iran's newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian "is actually Turkish," expressing hopes to strengthen relations between the two nations under Pezeshkian's leadership.

"Masoud Pezeshkian is actually Turkish of Azerbaijani origin; for instance, he speaks Turkish in Tabriz. But when he goes to Kurdish areas, he can also speak Kurdish there," Erdogan told reporters during his return trip from Germany.

Erdogan added that he plans to reach out to Pezeshkian with a congratulatory call upon returning to Turkiye. "I hope that relations between Turkiye and Iran will improve in the future. Iran is an important neighbor with which we have historical and cultural ties," he said.

"In the new presidential term, I expect that bilateral relations between Turkiye and Iran will develop positively and at an increasingly rapid pace," Erdogan noted.

Pezeshkian, who won the recent Iranian election, was born in September 1954 in Mahabad. He is the son of an Iranian father of Azeri origin and an Iranian Kurdish mother.