Last Updated On: Dec 16 2020 01:33 Gmt+3 Turkey and Iran are experiencing a new level of tension following remarks by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that Tehran accuses of undermining its territorial integrity. Erdoğan travelled to Azerbaijan last week for a military parade celebrating the recapture of large chunks of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia. There he delivered a speech that included recitation of a poem that lamented the separation of the Azeri people. “They separated the Aras River and filled it with rocks and rods. I will not be separated from you. They have separated us forcibly,” read the line from the poem. To many Iranian leaders, Erdoğan’s reading of this line triggered outrage for stoking separatism in their country.