İran’ın Orta Asya Politikası: Siyasi, Askerî, İktisadi ve Kültürel İlişkiler Üzerinden Bir Değerlendirme
Iran’s Central Asia Policy: An Evaluation of Political, Military, Economic and Cultural Relations

Summary/Abstract: When a power gap arose in Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Iran did not remain indifferent to the developments in the region. On the contrary, Iran's Central Asia policy has revealed that the ideological-idealist discourses in its foreign policy are only rhetoric. Because Tehran has paid strict attention to developing pragmatic and realistic relations with the states of the region by considering the region in question as an "escape route" especially for overcoming the sanctions. It is known that the four states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan) other than Tajikistan, which has a Persian ancestry among the Central Asian states, are of Turkish origin. This circumstance is one of the factors limiting Iran's relations with the region. Especially the integration policies carried out in the Turkic world led to the weakening of Iran's influence in the region. Being aware of this situation, the Tehran administration attempts to make a presence in Central Asia by establishing relations with regional capitals on a pragmatist basis. The political, military, economic, and cultural dimensions of Iran's relations with the Central Asian Republics are analysed in this article. In this study, in which content analysis was adopted methodically, Turkish and English sources were used. Articles, reports/analyses of think tanks and news in media organisations were evaluated within this scope. Thus, a holistic perspective on Iran's Central Asian policy has been attempted to be put forward.

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