Iran & Turkey
Five years ago, when the Islamist AKP party of Turkey managed to form a non-coalition government after the parliamentary elections, analyzers thought of a different relationship between Iran and Turkey. Although Iran-Turkey ties had always followed a balanced course in different periods, but during Recep Teyyip Erdogan’s tenure the Prime Minister adopted a conservative approach towards Iran.
With the initiation of the second round of Erdogan’s office and election of the former foreign minister Abdullah Gul as the president of Turkey, we can await a period of warm relations between Iran and Turkey. One of the signals for this can be the signing of a gas pact despite United States’ fierce opposition.
Relations between Iran and Turkey before the 20th century were mostly the rivalry between two great empires that vied for taking over leadership of the Muslim World. The relations changed after the First World War and establishment of a new republic in Turkey in 1923 and rise of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran in 1924.
The new Turkey was going to be westernized and modernized. Therefore building up close relationships was one of the main priorities of Turkey in its foreign affairs. Reza Shah in Iran also tried to follow Ata Turk’s ideology. So he also gave priority to establishing close ties with neighboring countries such as Turkey. However his aim was entrenching his monarchy rather than building up a beneficial relationship with another country.
The new strategies of Iran and Turkey and their geopolitical situation led to an ideological affinity between them and brought them closer. Also, the presence of Soviet Union was another reason that forced these countries to converge. Both placed importance on each others’ survival.
After the final triumph of Iran’s Islamic Revolution on 11th of February 1979, Bülent Ecevit, the Turkish Prime Minister immediately recognized the new Islamic Republic and hoped that the two sides could expand their ties. In his message to Tehran, he stated that Turkey wishes to maintain its mutual relationship with Iran.
Relations of Iran and Turkey continued during the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq and reached their zenith in 1981 and 1982. Meanwhile the trade figures showed 2.2 billion dollars of exchange which reached 2.3 billion dollars in 1984 and 1985.
Between 1991 and 1992, Iran and Turkey vied to increase their influence in the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey tried to implement an active foreign policy in the region and it is known as the first country that developed diplomatic and economic ties with the Central Asian countries.
The Turkish International Co-operation and Development Agency was established and the first World Conference of Turks was held in Ankara in 1992 (without the co-operation of the government). Russia strongly condemned the interventionist policy of Turkey following this conference. Meanwhile Iran that followed an anti-West and anti-American policy intended to prevent United States from replacing former Soviet Union in the Caspian Sea.
Since 1993 Iran and Turkey expanded their political ties to improve their relations. Both countries declared that they demanded a friendly bilateral policy. Meanwhile Iran reiterated that the two countries’ geopolitical situation and their natural resources have prepared conditions for close ties between them.
When Süleyman Demirel, former Turkish President visited Iran in 1994 he said that both countries must have closer co-operation in order to unite the Muslim World. Following these statements, both countries took decisive steps to establish better ties. For example the Export Expansion Funds of both countries agreed on paying each other an annual export credit up to 15 million dollars.
Chambers of Commerce of Iran and Turkey increased their trade and the Iran’s Minister of Higher Education and the Turkish Chairman of Selcuk University shared ideas to expand collaborations.
On February 1995, Iran and Turkey started religious collaboration. On the October of the same year a cultural agreement was signed in which holding cultural week of the two countries, film festivals, Turkish and Persian classes, book fairs and tourist exchange were planned.
At the same year trade between the two countries boosted. In 1994 these exchanges had a volume of 571.11 million dollars. The volume surpassed 700 million dollars between January and September of 1995. In this period Iran’s export to Turkey had a value of nearly 513.36 million dollars.
On 22nd of June 1995 Süleyman Demirel, the late president of Turkey pointed to the necessity of medical co-operation between Iran and Turkey. At that year, Iran’s speaker of parliament invited his Turkish counterpart to the country. Meanwhile Enver Uyman, Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkey visited Iran to attend the second conference of Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC).
During his trip he stated that Iran is one of the strategic countries of the region and improving mutual relations with Iran is important for Turkey. Besides, he delivered Mr. Demirel’s letter to Iranian officials. The letter had emphasized that Turkey will not allow any individual or party to act against Iran. He had also asked for the reinforcement of Ankara-Tehran ties.
In the February of 1995 Demirel hosted Iran’s Minister of Commerce in Istanbul. After the negotiations both sides agreed on founding a Committee of Financial Co-operations to expand financial ties.
In December of 1995 Turkey’s Minister of Transportation visited Iran to negotiate with Iranian officials on good transport between Europe and Middle East with the co-operation of Iran and Turkey.
In 1996, despite United States’ open opposition, Necmettin Erbakan, then the Prime Minister of Turkey, signed a gas pact with Iran. At the same year Turkey purchased 4 million tons of petroleum from Iran and the two countries’ officials agreed to raise the level of financial co-operations up to 2 billion dollars per annum.
Necmettin Erbakan who followed an Islamic ideology had several visits to Islamic countries such as Iran, Indonesia, Nigeria and Libya. But secular parties and the army of Turkey did not support his policy and in 1997 the Turkish army along with the Constitutional Court forced him to resign.
Erbakan’s resignation strained the relations between Iran and Turkey to some extent. But with Khatami’s rise to power the relations quickly recovered.
Due to this recovery, on 18th of January 2000, Kamal Kharazzi, then the Foreign Minister of Iran, visited Turkey. In that year, Iranian and Turkish officials met in Ankara to negotiate about security issues. This meeting was aimed to relieve the tension between the two sides. Both countries agreed to have bilateral co-operation on terrorism.
Bilateral Co-operations
Turkey is a suitable market for Iran due to its need of natural gas and oil. On the other hand the private sector of Turkey knows Iran as an appealing market for nonpetroleum investment and is interested in raising the level of co-operations.
This gives hope for the relations between the two countries since with an increase in commercial co-operations Iran and Turkey can improve their diplomatic relations.
Friendly relations between Iran and West and between Turkey and United States directly impact Vladimir Putin’s hegemonism in the Caspian Sea.
Putin knows himself as the heir to the power of the former Soviet Union and he has no doubt in playing the role of the former Soviet Union to fully dominate Central Asia and Kazakhstan but he knows that he can’t fulfill this role singly. So this country needs the assistance of countries such as China, India and Iran to resist United States. Therefore Russia views Iran as its ally in the region.
When Iran and Turkey reached an agreement on issues such as regional peace, security and further co-operations, automatically Russia lost its ally in the region and it’ll have no chance to dominate the Caspian Sea.
On the other hand, co-operations between Iran and Turkey will have a positive impact on Central Asian countries. Most importantly they will become less dependent on Russia for energy and consequently they’ll find a chance to express their political, economical and social stance and live in a safer region.
With the rise of Recep Teyyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP party to power, a much more friendly relation was anticipated. But Erdogan government’s approach to Iran was highly conservative. However, despite United States’ disagreement Turkey signed its gas pact with Iran last month and as usual stressed the necessity of maintaining its relations with Iran.
Iran and Turkey have always tried to have friendly ties as neighboring countries, though these relations have not been free from tensions. But the main point that shouldn’t be forgotten is that the more friendly the ties between the two sides, the more beneficial it’ll be for both countries and of course for Middle East.