Iran and Turkey in a Changing Middle East Panel

3 minute reading time

Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) organized a panel titled “Iran and Turkey in A Changing Middle East”together with Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) attached to Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and TOBB Economics and Technology University Department of Political Science and International Relations on 30 November 2016, Wednesday. The speakers of the panel were METU Vice-President and Faculty Member at Department of International Relations Prof. Dr. Meliha B. Altunışık andDeputy Foreign Minister for Research and Education, I.R. of IranProf. Dr. SeyyedKazemSajjadpour. The first speaker Prof. Dr. Sajjadpourargued the necessity of an ‘analysis of rupture’ in the changing Middle East. He mentioned ruptures in Arab security system, within the states of the Middle East, in the international linkage with the region, established values and identities. The second point that he emphasized was ‘competition of narratives’ to be imposed on the region and to shape the region. These competing narratives were historical, religious-sociological, ethnic, and trans-regional narratives. He defined Turkey-Iran relations as having responsibility to repair the rupture in the new space created by the ruptures in the region. Sajjadpour emphasized the comprehensive relations between the two countries which could enable them to create a new regional arrangement that would include other regional players as well. 

Prof. Dr. Meliha B. Altunışık draw the attention to the continuities and changes both in regional politics and in bilateral relations. She identified the absence of a functional regional order as a continuity. According to her, in the Middle East where no regional hegemonic order was able to be imposed either by regional powers or by a global power, a multipolar regional structure and rivalries among global powers continued to affect the regional politics. Change, however, came with the deepening crises after the Cold War.The regional politics was influenced by the phenomenon of state-collapse, intensified polarization, and dynamic and constantly evolving crisis situation.The crisis situation was also reflected in Turkey-Iran relations. The factors such as multifaceted relations, mistrust and misperception, ideological competition were the elements of continuity in Turkey-Iran relations. On the other side, competition in bilateral relations gave its place to complex relations and compartmentalization of relations with the beginning of the Arab Spring. Also, emergence of common threats paved the way for the formation of common interests for cooperation. Altunışık ended her speech by stating that managing competition became more and more difficult and the current rivalry carried the potential to evolve either to a successful conflict management or to escalation of conflict.

Panel ended with Q&A session.