Pragmatism and Rivalry: The Nature of Turkey-Iran Relations, Fall 2013

This article examines the recent developments in Turkey-Iran relations. Over the last decade there has been an obvious rapprochement between the two countries. Ideological rivalry gave way to pragmatism, especially obvious in economic cooperation. However, the Arab Spring and particularly the civil war in Syria led to a deterioration of the relations between Turkey and Iran and revealed the fragility of this relationship, especially in terms of security and rival visions for the region. Iran’s newly elected moderate President Hassan Rouhani has already demonstrated that Iran is willing to cooperate with the West on several issues. For now it seems like Iran is switching from the hard line foreign policy of the Ahmadinejad era to a more cooperative stance, which most likely will affect Turkey-Iran relations in a positive way.