Turkey will soon hand over a number of artifacts dating back to the Seljuk dynasty to Iran in line with a joint campaign against smuggling of historical artifacts.

Turkish officials have already agreed to return the seized artifacts to Iran. A bowl belonging to the ancient civilization of Jiroft was also recently returned to Iran.

Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization’s director general for legal affairs said a group of Iranian experts are presently in Turkey to identify Iranian artifacts.

Younes Samadi also noted that the Iranian artifacts were smuggled to Turkey and the Iranians began legal proceedings for their return a long time ago.

"We anticipate that the Turkish officials will soon return the artifacts to Iran. Iran has been successful in pursuing the return of artifacts from abroad," he said.