.اشترك في نشرتنا الإخبارية لتحصل على أهم و أبرز أخبار اليوم
Energy is the first pillar of this partnership. Turkey depends on Iran for approximately 15 to 16% of its natural gas imports. For Ankara, a winter gas outage paralyzes the national economy. Iran, for its part, suffers from severe international isolation. Tehran therefore uses the Turkish border to circumvent Western sanctions. The two countries set aside their deep disagreements over Syria and Iraq to protect these vital resources.
III- Syria, the Theater of Their RivalrySince 2011, Syria has served as the central arena for the geopolitical rivalry between Turkey and Iran. Their strategic objectives in the conflict directly contradicted one another: Ankara actively backed Sunni rebel groups in an effort to oust Damascus, eventually establishing control over northern Syrian territories such as Afrin and Idlib. Conversely, Tehran mobilized extensive resources, primarily through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, to secure the survival of Bashar al-Assad's government. This clash was driven by fundamental strategic differences, as Iran viewed the Alawite regime as an indispensable pillar of its regional power projection, whereas Turkey perceived it as an illegitimate dictatorship suppressing a popular uprising.
Ultimately, the relationship between Ankara and Tehran remains a "rivalry under control." Here, pragmatism is not a matter of political or ideological affinity, but a pure necessity for the survival of both powers.
