Iran Turkey Relations 1979 2011

Both Turkey and Iran are large and important countries in the Middle East; how these two countries relate to each other is of crucial importance both for the region and for the wider world. This book explores the diplomatic, security and energy relations of these two middle power states since 1979, analysing the impact of religious, political and social transformation on their bilateral relationship. It considers the nature of Turkey-Iran relations in the context of middle power relations theory, and goes on to look at diplomatic crises that have taken place between Turkey and Iran since 1979. The author analyses Turkey and Iran’s security relations with the wider Middle East, including the Kurdish-Turkish War, the Kurdish-Iranian War and the Kurdish-Arab War, and their impact on regional politics.

The author emphasizes that, in addition to the Palestine-Israel conflict, the significance of the oil and gas resources of the Middle East and the U.S. and British occupation of Iraq, relations between Turkey and Iran are vital to understanding the politics of the Middle East and the future of the region."--BOOK JACKET.

This book explores the diplomatic, security and energy relations of Turkey and Iran, analysing the impact of religious, political and social transformation on their bilateral relationship. It examines Turkey and Iran’s security relations with the wider Middle East - including the Kurdish-Turkish War, the Kurdish-Iranian War and the Kurdish-Arab War - and their impact on regional politics.

Turkish-Iranian cooperation has visibly intensified in recent years, thanks in part to Turkish energy needs and Iran's vast oil and natural gas resources. However, Turkey and Iran tend to be rivals rather than close partners. While they may share certain economic and security interests, especially regarding the Kurdish issue, their interests are at odds in many areas across the Middle East. Turkey's support for the opposition in Syria, Iran's only true state ally in the Middle East, is one example. Iraq has also become a field of growing competition between Turkey and Iran. Iran's nuclear program has been a source of strain and divergence in U.S.-Turkish relations. However, the differences between the United States and Turkey regarding Iran's nuclear program are largely over tactics, not strategic goals. Turkey's main fear is that Iran's acquisition of nuclear arms could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. This, in turn, could increase pressure on the Turkish government to consider developing its own nuclear weapon capability. U.S. and Turkish interests have become more convergent since the onset of the Syrian crisis. However, while U.S. and Turkish interests in the Middle East closely overlap, they are not identical. Thus, the United States should not expect Turkey to follow its policy toward Iran unconditionally. Turkey has enforced United Nations sanctions against Iran but, given Ankara's close energy ties to Tehran, may be reluctant to undertake the harshest measures against Iran.

The foreign policies of Turkey and Iran seem increasingly to dictate the course of events in the Middle East. More recently, and especially following the Syrian crisis, the spotlight has turned to these states' dynamic re-entry onto the political stage, revealing them as key players with an international role in efforts towards the balance of power across the region. This book traces the major determinants of Turkish and Iranian foreign policies and their influence on events in the Middle East. Based on an examination of these states' politics and policies since 1979, and using material gathered from interviews with leading political figures from Turkey, Iran and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Marianna Charountaki offers fresh insights into how we understand the contemporary global order. Of particular importance, this book shows, is the effect of both external and internal factors on foreign policy and how the interaction between state and non-state actors informs political decisions. In placing these issues in a theoretical framework, Marianna Charountaki pioneers a new conceptual map within International Relations. An interdisciplinary study that provides a fresh new perspective, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of International Relations, Politics, Foreign Policy, Kurdish and Middle East Studies.

This book explores emotional-affective implications of partnership and rivalry in Turkey-Iran relations. The main proposition of this research underlines the theoretical need to reconnect psycho-social conceptualizations of “emotionality,” “affectivity,” “normativity,” and “relationality.” By combining key theoretical findings, the book offers a holistic conceptual framework to better analyze emotional-affective configuration of relational rules and roles in trans-governmental neighborhood interactions. The empirical chapters look at four consecutive periods extending from the end of First World War (November 1918) to the resuscitation of US sanctions against Iran (November 2018). In each episode, global-regional contours and dyadic dynamics of Ankara-Tehran relationship are examined critically. The century-long history of emotional entanglements and affective arrangements exposes complex patterning of “feeling rules.” Two countervailing constellations still reign over relational narratives. While the 1514 Çaldıran war myth reproduces sectarian resentment and confrontational climate, the 1639 Kasr-ı Şirin peace story reconstructs secular sympathy and collaborative atmosphere in Turkish-Iranian affairs.

This volume examines contemporary political relations between Turkey and the Middle East. In the light of the Arab Uprisings of 2011, the Syria Crisis, the escalation of regional terrorism and the military coup attempt in Turkey, it illustrates the dramatic fluctuations in Turkish foreign policy towards key Middle Eastern countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. The contributors analyze Turkey’s deepening involvement in Middle Eastern regional affairs, also addressing issues such as terrorism, social and political movements and minority rights struggles. While these problems have traditionally been regarded as domestic matters, this book highlights their increasingly regional dimension and the implications for the foreign affairs of Turkey and countries in the Middle East.

This book challenges the widely held assumption that a nuclear-armed Iran would provoke a proliferation cascade in the Middle East. Arguing that a domino effect is by no means inevitable, the authors set out a number of policy measures that could be enacted by the international community to reduce this risk.