Abstract
Relations between Iran and Turkey have long been defined by mutual suspicion and competition, despite a 312-mile border that has remained unchanged since 1639, and the main reasons are due to geopolitics and ideology. On the one hand, in many ways, Turkey and Iran are mirror images of each other. They share geography, culture, religion, and a long history of conflict and cooperation. They both straddle multiple geopolitical regions. On the other hand, the two countries also symbolize two opposite poles in the Islamic world. One is trying to be the leader of Sunni Islam and even the whole Islamic world and the other one is the de-facto leader of Shiite Islam. However, after the Justice and Development Party (JDP in English and AKP in Turkish) came to power since 2002, the relations of Turkey and Iran developed into a high level. Turkey has provided Iran with important support at its most vulnerable time, for example, the Nuclear Issue, Syrian Issue, Economic Sanctions, and etc. Although Turkey and Iran will not become allies, there is a potential that the two countries, together with Russia, are establishing a triangle nexus which will coordinate key issues in the Greater Middle East. This chapter aims to use the theory of Eurasianism to analyze Turkey-Iran relations. The main content will cover the following aspects: Turkey and Iran’s role in Eurasianism; the historical relations of Turkey and Iran with the focus on geopolitics; Turkey-Iran Relations during AKP period; Prospects of Turkey-Iran relations within the framework of Eurasianism and New Geopolitics.
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Acknowledgment
This chapter was supported by “Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education of China” (17JZD036) and “Youth Program of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Shanghai Municipality” (2017EGJ004).
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Chen, Y. (2021). New Development of Turkey-Iran Relations from the Perspective of Eurasianism. In: Leandro, F.J.B.S., Branco, C., Caba-Maria, F. (eds) The Geopolitics of Iran. Studies in Iranian Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3564-9_21
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