Turkey: Iran’s No. 1 Rival in Region

15 September 2011 | 20:00 Code : 16269 Europe
By Mohammad Ali Bahmani Qajar, a researcher in ME issues.
Turkey: Iran’s No. 1 Rival in Region
IRD: The Ottomans and Turkey, their rightful successor, have always used Iranian friendship and throughout history. Iran had the opportunity to attack the Ottomans in the Safavid era, but refrained from doing so. On the other hand, Turkey has attacked Iran whenever it found the opportunity and occupied major parts of its land. It continued with violations of the friendship treaty with Iran in the Iran-Russia war, its pressuring of the Kuwaiti Sheikh to assault Khorramshahr in the Mohammad Shah era, the occupation of Qatour in the time of Nasereddin Shah, the sedition of Sheikh Abdollah in the contemporary era, and cooperation in the assassination of Nasereddin Shah.

After the constitutional era, the Ottomans occupied Mahabad and contrary to the Iranian liberals’ cooperation with Ottomans, Iran was left with treacheries, knaveries and crimes: from calling Zarathustra a Turk, promoting Pan-Turkism in Azerbaijan and the occupation of some parts of the country, and the arresting and deportation of some adversaries like Sheikh Mohammad Khiabani to Symitqo. They even betrayed Reza Shah: they used Iran’s land to suppress Kurds and did not leave the country after the suppression, taking the Ararat Mountains. They also used the Iran’s trust at the borders of Afghanistan and granted some parts of the land to Afghanistan.

Ignoring this record, Iranian foreign policy and even Iranian political elites have acted naively with respect to Turkey. Seemingly, Iran has considered Erdogan as a true friend and insisted that the 5+1-Iran negotiations be held in Turkey; Iran has tried to portray itself as the revolutionary face of the Islamic world and Turkey as a moderate figure through which the West can find a way to seek the Iran’s cooperation. Such actions can merely distort the image of Iran and promote Turkey’s international position. We were in thorough ignorance, and all Iranian officials have praised Erdogan, at least until the Syrian crisis and his real intentions were revealed. Now some points can be mentioned about Erdogan’s Turkey:

1-            Erdogan’s Turkey is definitely Ottoman-oriented; while the Laic parties’ Turkey posed some obstacles in the Turkish-speaking region, Erdogan’s Turkey is an international rival in the whole Islamic world, especially in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

2-            Turkey is after cutting off the Shiites’ support from Iran, whether they be Iraqis or Turkish-speaking Iranians. Erdogan’s visit to Karbala and Imam Hussein’s shrine was not out of religious passion, but a tool to weaken Iran.

3-            Supporting the Syrian protestors, Turkey does not have any humanitarian purpose; the ambiguous position regarding Libya revealed their real intentions.

4-            Erdogan’s Turkey can threaten Iran’s interests more than any other Turkey, as the two countries’ national interests are totally different.