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The Limits of Turkish–Iranian Cooperation, 1974–80
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Abstract
Why did Turkey and Iran fail to become close partners in the 1970s even though they had compelling reasons to do so? This article argues that mutual distrust between Turkish and Iranian leaders, domestic turmoil in the two countries, and diverging geostrategic priorities undermined Ankara and Tehran's efforts to deepen their relations. While the shah of Iran saw his country as the policeman of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, successive governments in Turkey continued to look west for their security. As economic and political turmoil engulfed the two countries, leading to a revolution in Iran in 1979 and a coup in Turkey in 1980, Iranian and Turkish leaders could not forge a lasting partnership.
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- Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2014
Footnotes
Barın Kayaoğlu would like to thank the Gerald Ford Presidential Foundation and the Lynne and Harry Bradley Foundation for their generous grants that made the research for this article possible. He would also like to thank the archivists at the Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter Presidential Libraries for their assistance. Finally, he is indebted to Roham Alvandi, Malcolm Byrne, Jim Goode, John Limbert, and Iranian Studies' two anonymous referees for their comments on previous drafts of this article.
References
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21 Helms to Washington, September 15, 1974, Box 14, Presidential Country Files, Ford Library; Asadollah Alam, Yaddashtaha-ye Alam: Virastar Alinaghi Alikhani [The Alam diaries: Editor Alinaghi Alikhani] (Tehran, 1387/2008), 4: 294. The passage appears in English in Alam, The Shah and I, 397.
22 Figure quoted by the shah in Alam, Yaddashtaha-ye Alam, 6: 346; and Alam, The Shah and I, 525.
23 Correspondence and discussions relating to these projects are available in Boxes 41–3, US National Security Council Institutional Files, 1974–77, Ford Library.
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30 Quoted in Oakley to Scowcroft, May 16, 1975, Box 12, Presidential Country Files, Ford Library.
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32 Memorandum of Conversation, July 10, 1975, Box 12, Nat. Sec. Adv.—Memcons, Ford Library.
33 Kissinger to Helms, July 5, 1975, Box 13, Presidential Country Files, Ford Library.
34 There are two numbers regarding closed US bases: “Kapalı 31 Amerikan üssü kararı bekliyor” [31 closed American bases await decision], Hürriyet, April 8, 1978. Another source cites 25 US bases that operated in Turkey outside the NATO framework: Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 165.
35 Quoted in Birand, Diyet, 113.
36 Alam, The Shah and I, 552.
37 Memorandum of Conversation, May 5, 1975, Box 11, Nat. Sec. Adv.—Memcons, Ford Library; Memorandum of Conversation, August 3, 1976, Box 20, Nat. Sec. Adv.—Memcons, Ford Library.
38 “Interview with Paul F. Gardner, Mutual Security Affairs Counselor, Turkey (1974–1976),” in American Diplomats in Turkey. Oral History Transcripts (1928–1997), ed. Rıfat N. Bali (İstanbul, 2011), 2: 886.
39 “Türkiye–İran ortak silah ve savunma sanayii kurulacak” [Turkey–Iran joint arms and defense industry to be established], Hürriyet, June 7, 1975; Altan Öymen, “Türkiye ile İran, Ortak Silah Endüstrisi Kurmak İçin İlke Olarak Anlaştılar” [Turkey and Iran agree in principle to establish joint arms ındustry], Cumhuriyet, June 7, 1975.
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44 Yener Süsoy, “Rıza Pehlevi, aklını Türkiye ile bozmuştu” [Reza Pahlavi was obsessed with Turkey], Hürriyet, April 20, 2004.
45 Alam, The Shah and I, 552.
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47 “İran 150 milyar liralık modern silah aldı” [Iran bought 150 billion liras' worth of arms], Hürriyet, January 8, 1976.
48 Tülümen, İran Devrimi Hatıraları, 7–8; Bleda, Maskeli Balo, 97–147. “İran Atom Çağına Geçiyor” [Iran moving into the atomic age], Hürriyet, January 13, 1975; “Şah CIA'ya Para Veriyor!” [The shah is giving money to the CIA!], Hürriyet, January 21, 1975; “İran, Umman Sultanlığına Göz Dikti” [Iran has set its eyes on the sultanate of Oman], Hürriyet, February 1, 1975; “İran, Türkiye'ye Para Akıtmaya Hazır” [Iran ready to pour money into Turkey] and “Şah, Ortadoğu Liderliği Yolunda” [Shah on the way to become leader of the Middle East], Hürriyet, March 10, 1975.
49 İlhan Selçuk, “Çağdaşlaşma” [Modernization], Cumhuriyet, February 24, 1974; Altan Öymen, “Petrolcüler Meydan mı Okuyor?” [Are oil producers in defiance?], Cumhuriyet, June 3, 1974; İlhan Selçuk, Sovyetler–İran–Amerika İzlenimleri [Soviet–İran–America observations] (İstanbul, 1976), 13.
50 İran Halkının Fedaileri [People's Fedayin of Iran], İran'da Silahlı Propaganda [Armed propaganda in Iran] (İstanbul, 1976); Djazani, Bijan, İran'da Silahlı Mücadele: Kitlelerin Devrim Yoluna Çekilmesi [Armed struggle in Iran: drawing the masses to the way of the revolution] (İstanbul, 1978)Google Scholar.
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52 “MİT, SAVAK'la ilişkiyi kesti” [MİT ends relations with SAVAK], Hürriyet, June 11, 1978; “İran 400 yıllık barışı bozmak istiyor” [Iran wants to disrupt 400 years of peace], and Oktay Ekşi, “SAVAK'a selam!” [Salutations to SAVAK!], Hürriyet, June 12, 1978; “KAWA'yı SAVAK kurdu” [SAVAK founded KAWA] Hürriyet, June 13, 1978; “KAWA'ya silah getiren TIR yakalandı” [Truck bringing weapons to KAWA caught], Hürriyet, June 15, 1978.
53 Oktay Ekşi, “Demokrasinin Nimeti” [The blessing of democracy], Hürriyet, November 19, 1978.
54 Metin Toker, “Şah tahtından feragat etmeyi de düşünüyor” [Shah also considering abdication], Hürriyet, December 2, 1978; Tülümen, İran Devrimi Hatıraları, 36.
55 Zaring to Henze, “Memorandum on Turkey,” December 22, 1978, Electronic Declassification Project, NLC-18-7-9-2-4, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library (hereafter Carter Library).
56 Underlines from original document: Larrabee to Brzezinski, “U.S. Policy Toward Turkey and Greece,” December 3, 1979, Electronic Declassification Project, NLC-17-131-9-1-8, Carter Library.
57 Carter to Vice President et al., “Persian Gulf Security Framework,” [undated], Electronic Declassification Project, NLC-17-141-8-2-7, Carter Library.
58 Tülümen, İran Devrimi Hatıraları, 182–3.
59 Figures from Evren Altınkaş, “The Iran–Iraq War and Its Effects on Turkey,” Uluslararası Hukuk ve Politika 1, no. 4 (2005): 142–3; and Mustafa Aydın and Damla Aras, “Political Conditionality of Economic Relations Between Paternalist States: Turkey's Interactions with Iran, Iraq, and Syria,” Arab Studies Quarterly 27, no. 1–2 (2005): 31.
60 Thomas L. Friedman, “Letter from Istanbul,” New York Times, June 15, 2010; Michael C. Desch, “Turkey's Doing It Without the Fez On,” The National Interest, October 26, 2010, http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/without-fez-4299.
61 Most observers argue that Turkey sets a better example for Arab countries: Mustafa Akyol, “Turkey vs. Iran: The Regional Battle for Hearts and Minds,” Foreign Affairs, March 21, 2012, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137343/mustafa-akyol/turkey-vs-iran?page=show; Mona Moussavi, “Iran and the Arab Awakening,” LSE Middle East Centre Blog, http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/files/2012/04/Iran-and-the-Arab-Awakening-FULL-VERSION.pdf; “Turkey Sole Example for Region, Iran a Failed Model, Says Expert,” Today's Zaman, March 19, 2012, http://www.todayszaman.com/news-274788-turkey-sole-example-for-region-iran-a-failed-model-says-expert.html. In 2011, a majority of Egyptians stated that they wanted their country to resemble Turkey: “2011 Annual Arab Public Opinion Survey,” http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2011/11/21%20arab%20public%20opinion%20telhami/1121_arab_public_opinion.pdf. (All links accessed January 2, 2013.) The idea of Turkey and Iran serving as different models for the Middle East seems to be an old one: Ambassador Tülümen relates in his memoirs that, in his farewell dinner in Tehran in 1983, the ambassadors of several Arab countries wished for Turkey to succeed. Otherwise, they said, they would all “become Iran.” Tülümen, İran Devrimi Hatıraları, 250.
62 For a comprehensive study on Turkish–Iranian relations in the post-1979 period, see Elliot Hentov, Asymmetry of Interest: Turkish–Iranian Relations Since 1979 (Saarbrücken, 2012).
63 F. Stephen Larrabee, “The Turkish–Iranian Alliance That Wasn't,” Foreign Affairs, July 11, 2012, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137773/f-stephen-larrabee/the-turkish-iranian-alliance-that-wasnt.
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