“Shia and Sunni Muslims should remember that they were both fed from the same book, the same prophet, the same persuasion and the same belief,” he told a symposium on north Africa, Iran and Turkey at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University.
The centuries-old struggle between the two main strands of Islam has been highlighted by the conflicts in Syria and Iraq in recent years.
Kalin said Iran, the main Shia power in the Middle East, along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey bore particular responsibility in helping prevent sectarian violence.
“Today, neither Sunnis should be oppressed in the name of Shiism nor Shias be oppressed in the name of Sunnism,” Kalin told the audience.
“We should establish this perspective in the correct way.”
Kalin, an aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said regional powers should work to find common ground to allow people to live with their differences.
However, not all conflict in the region was due to religious or ethnic sectarianism, Kalin added, pointing to the threat posed by terror groups such as the PKK/PYD in Syria.
The three-day International Symposium on Continuity and Change in North Africa, Iran and Turkey has been organized by the university and the Ankara Center for Iranian Studies to explore a wide range of regional topics.
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