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Today's Zaman, your gateway to Turkish daily news
Turkish-Iranian relations since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 have developed along an axis of ideological hostility between the two neighbors.
While the Turkish Kemalist elite was concerned that the Iranian revolution would be exported after the revolution, Iran has viewed Turkey as a segment of its Ottoman predecessor, which once rivaled the Persian Empire for leadership, even though the new Turkey has a secular structure.
In that period, Iran sought a variety of ways to challenge secular Turkey, a NATO member and important ally of the US, which was labeled the great Satan by the Ruhollah Khomeini regime.
At that time, Iran was involved in some covert operations, including the assassination of secular writers and opponents of the revolution who were hiding in Turkey in the 1990's.
In an interview with Tolga Tanış of the Hürriyet daily on July 18, 2010, Reza Kahlili, an American spy in Iran and author of "A Time to Betray," revealed the inner workings of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran and claimed that Iran was responsible for many of the assassinations and bombings in Turkey in the 1990's.
It is not a secret that Iran had a great influence on the formation of political Islam in Turkey after the 1980's. In those years, Iran secretly supported some publications, media organizations, non-profit organizations, youth movements and political parties. It was as a result of that influence that in 1996, less than a week after US President Bill Clinton signed new restrictions against Iran, then-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan visited Tehran, his first major foreign visit since becoming prime minister.
One of the milestones of the Feb. 28 postmodern coup period was the Iranian ambassador's speech at "Jerusalem Night" in 1996 in Ankara, which was organized by the Sincan Municipality of Erbakan's Welfare Party (RP) at the time.
In 1997 Erbakan resigned, and soon afterwards his party was banned. In 2001, Recep Tayyip Erdogan established his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on the basis of a new vision, claiming that they were not Islamists anymore but Muslim democrats.
When Erdoğan's AK Party took office in 2002, it was eager to make a change in foreign relations, including with Iran. The US vision of promoting democracy in the Middle East led Turkey to play a crucial role in the region, and Turkey's power on the global stage rose at that time. With the help of this geopolitical advantage, Turkey, taking an important political risk, carried out a diplomatic initiative in 2010 to broker the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) fuel deal with Iran. It was Dr. Hakan Fidan, -- now head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) -- who defended Iran's right to carry on its nuclear program for "peaceful purposes."
From 2002-2010 Erdoğan actually pursued a pro-Western vision in global politics. But in 2010, the Mavi Marmara incident, in which nine Turkish citizens were shot dead by Israeli commandos in international waters, was considered the first and most important signal that indicated an Iranian influence on the new Turkish intelligence elite and politics, even though there was no evidence that the Turkish intelligence community had been involved with the flotilla incident.
However, Manssour Arbabsiar, a dual US-Iranian citizen, was arrested in the US in September of 2011 for conspiring to murder Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the US, and sentenced to 25 years in prison in May of 2013. Soon after, the FBI noticed that the companies Azra and Hacer Jewelery, based in İstanbul and affiliated with Reza Zarrab, who is accused of bribing Turkish Cabinet members, had sent Arbabsiar $1.5 million before the assassination.
According to former American diplomats, Turkish officials refused to share information about the two companies with their American counterparts. The Arbabsiar case still remains a mystery, as it was linked to Zarrab, who is also linked to the Turkish government.
A former American diplomat has said the Turkish intelligence elite is suspected of having suspicious links to Iran. "We are certainly concerned about that. This is not something we can comfortably ignore. The US and its allies would not be comfortable about non-NATO states having access to allied data," said the diplomat.
The American intelligence community is also suspicious about their Turkish counterparts protecting Iranian interests in Syria during the Syrian civil war rather than the interests of Turkey and its allies. "Many in Washington believe the US was betrayed by the Turks in Syria," he added.
A senior Turkey analyst has told Today's Zaman that the recent pressure on the Fethullah Gülen movement in Turkey might be related to Iranian influence in Turkey as well. "Iran has never changed its view on Turkey. As a globally organized moderate Sunni Muslim organization, the Gülen movement is absolutely a threat to Iranian expansionism all over the world," he said.
Turkish-Iranian relations since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 have developed along an axis of ideological hostility between the two neighbors.
While the Turkish Kemalist elite was concerned that the Iranian revolution would be exported after the revolution, Iran has viewed Turkey as a segment of its Ottoman predecessor, which once rivaled the Persian Empire for leadership, even though the new Turkey has a secular structure.
In that period, Iran sought a variety of ways to challenge secular Turkey, a NATO member and important ally of the US, which was labeled the great Satan by the Ruhollah Khomeini regime.
At that time, Iran was involved in some covert operations, including the assassination of secular writers and opponents of the revolution who were hiding in Turkey in the 1990's.
In an interview with Tolga Tanış of the Hürriyet daily on July 18, 2010, Reza Kahlili, an American spy in Iran and author of "A Time to Betray," revealed the inner workings of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran and claimed that Iran was responsible for many of the assassinations and bombings in Turkey in the 1990's.
It is not a secret that Iran had a great influence on the formation of political Islam in Turkey after the 1980's. In those years, Iran secretly supported some publications, media organizations, non-profit organizations, youth movements and political parties. It was as a result of that influence that in 1996, less than a week after US President Bill Clinton signed new restrictions against Iran, then-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan visited Tehran, his first major foreign visit since becoming prime minister.
One of the milestones of the Feb. 28 postmodern coup period was the Iranian ambassador's speech at "Jerusalem Night" in 1996 in Ankara, which was organized by the Sincan Municipality of Erbakan's Welfare Party (RP) at the time.
In 1997 Erbakan resigned, and soon afterwards his party was banned. In 2001, Recep Tayyip Erdogan established his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on the basis of a new vision, claiming that they were not Islamists anymore but Muslim democrats.
When Erdoğan's AK Party took office in 2002, it was eager to make a change in foreign relations, including with Iran. The US vision of promoting democracy in the Middle East led Turkey to play a crucial role in the region, and Turkey's power on the global stage rose at that time. With the help of this geopolitical advantage, Turkey, taking an important political risk, carried out a diplomatic initiative in 2010 to broker the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) fuel deal with Iran. It was Dr. Hakan Fidan, -- now head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) -- who defended Iran's right to carry on its nuclear program for "peaceful purposes."
From 2002-2010 Erdoğan actually pursued a pro-Western vision in global politics. But in 2010, the Mavi Marmara incident, in which nine Turkish citizens were shot dead by Israeli commandos in international waters, was considered the first and most important signal that indicated an Iranian influence on the new Turkish intelligence elite and politics, even though there was no evidence that the Turkish intelligence community had been involved with the flotilla incident.
However, Manssour Arbabsiar, a dual US-Iranian citizen, was arrested in the US in September of 2011 for conspiring to murder Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the US, and sentenced to 25 years in prison in May of 2013. Soon after, the FBI noticed that the companies Azra and Hacer Jewelery, based in İstanbul and affiliated with Reza Zarrab, who is accused of bribing Turkish Cabinet members, had sent Arbabsiar $1.5 million before the assassination.
According to former American diplomats, Turkish officials refused to share information about the two companies with their American counterparts. The Arbabsiar case still remains a mystery, as it was linked to Zarrab, who is also linked to the Turkish government.
A former American diplomat has said the Turkish intelligence elite is suspected of having suspicious links to Iran. "We are certainly concerned about that. This is not something we can comfortably ignore. The US and its allies would not be comfortable about non-NATO states having access to allied data," said the diplomat.
The American intelligence community is also suspicious about their Turkish counterparts protecting Iranian interests in Syria during the Syrian civil war rather than the interests of Turkey and its allies. "Many in Washington believe the US was betrayed by the Turks in Syria," he added.
A senior Turkey analyst has told Today's Zaman that the recent pressure on the Fethullah Gülen movement in Turkey might be related to Iranian influence in Turkey as well. "Iran has never changed its view on Turkey. As a globally organized moderate Sunni Muslim organization, the Gülen movement is absolutely a threat to Iranian expansionism all over the world," he said.
![[TR]AHMET](/data/avatars/m/27/27358.jpg?1397822937){kind=avatar}
