تنافس المصالح والنفوذ بين تركيا وايران داخل بلدان آسيا الوسطى

Abstract

    The countries of Central Asia are located in the heart of the Asian continent, and they are Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, and these countries have a Muslim majority. These countries remained almost forgotten for a long period of time, but international attention jumped to them after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, and the international actors are most interested. In this region, which is rich in natural and hydrocarbon resources, there are Turkey and Iran. This means that the countries of the Central Asian region have become a new arena for competition for influence and interests between Iran and Turkey. Such interest requires us to reanalyze this sudden interest in this region and analyze its causes, and what are the mechanisms and means used by these countries. To enhance its influence and control its decision-making sources, and despite the differences in the elements of geographical, economic and political competition between the two countries; In light of a number of challenges that hinder their plans to dominate economically and politically over the region, and narrow their options, which prompts us to try to answer the question about what the current and future relationship between Turkey and Iran will look like in the countries of Central Asia, by reviewing the most important drivers of interest in the region, and comparing their ambitions. The two countries there, and its reflection on the strategies drawn up to extend Turkish and Iranian influence there, in addition to what this requires of analyzing the bilateral relations between them, in light of the presence of commonalities and intertwined relations, and the opportunities and challenges that this poses, in the short and long term, and to discuss this issue more broadly, We developed a research structure consisting of four sections, respectively

The first topic: The strategic importance of the countries of Central Asia to Turkey and Iran.

 The second topic: Türkiye and Iran’s means and tools to dominate the countries of Central Asia.

 The third topic: topics of conflict and disagreement between Iran and Turkey

The fourth section: opportunities, challenges, and drawing directions for the future relationship between Iran and Turkey in Central Asia