I wanted to share a surprisingly bad experience that we suffered in our travel from Los Angeles to Tehran My family and I wanted to take our small dog along with us on this trip as our two young girls are very emotionally attached to her and we believed that taking their beloved dog with us would ease their anxiety. We contacted Turkish Airline (TA) via its Facebook portal and inquired about the requirements for taking our dog from Los Angeles to Tehran. , TA confirmed our dog’s reservation for this trip. advised us of the $195 fee each way due at check in as well as reconfirming our dog’s reservation in cargo and the requirements for the carrying cage. On the day of our flight departure, the TA staff at the LAX initially disallowed boarding of our dog despite confirmed reservation and presentation of all the required documentation as required and requested. Upon our insistence that we have complied with all relevant rules and regulations as well as observing our girls distress, the TA staff asked us to sign a letter accepting the responsibility to take our dog to Iran thru LAX-IST-IKA on flights TA10 and TK0872. We were very appreciative, paid the $390 both ways carrying fee and boarded our flight and our dog in the cargo hold. We arrived in Istanbul and were shockingly surprised by TA staff at the gate for flight to Tehran that our dog will not be permitted to be carried forward to Iran IKA airport as agreed in LAX with us taking full responsibility. We understood this to mean taking responsibility to deal with any potential issues that might come up with Iranian custom’s officials. We were not in a position to stay in Istanbul to sort this out and therefore took the other option given to us by TA staff which was to leave in dog in TA custody in Istanbul and continue on with our travel to Iran. We were certain that we could clear this entire nightmare as soon as we get to IKA airport and stop our dog from being sent back to Los Angeles. Needless to say the severe emotional trauma that this caused our girls and unstoppable crying throughout the trip. Upon our arrival in Tehran, we contacted Iranian TA staff which did not help. We contacted Iranian authorities and obtained a letter clearly stating Iranian government approval and Import Permit for our dog’s entry to Iran with clear reference to Turkish authority allowing / clearing transport of our dog from Istanbul to Iran. TA Iranian staff completely disregarded such a clearly stated governmental permission to allow entry of our dog to Iran and without any basis or explanation to us decided to deport our dog back to Los Angeles after 3 days. This whole ordeal has caused us painful and lasting emotional anguish especially for our two very young girls, practically ruining our trip experience, has caused our dog untold distress (only if she could talk) during her caged detention in Istanbul under conditions unbeknown to us, unplanned cost of urgently and remotely hire dog accommodation for a month duration of our stay in Iran. Turkish airline do not have well trained employees and they don’t even know about different countries rules.