Barriers to Iran-Turkey Integration in Central Asia and the Caucasus Region

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Abstract

Collapse of the Soviet Union is considered as the most significant development happened in the last decades of the previous century. Transformation of power relations and balance of forces at regional level as well as activation of transregional and particularly regional powers to maintain their presence and extend their influence over southern Soviet Union could be mentioned as consequences of such a development. This is while; these powers had been previously prohibited from playing active roles by the Soviet Union. In this big game, the main rivalry has been developed between Iran and Turkey, two regional powers that border Central Asia and Caucasus and enjoy significant geographical and historical status in addition to an ancient civilization. The article reveals that despite current commonalities, these two countries have faced some barriers to integration in Central Asia. The paper proceeds with studying the most common obstacles, i.e. ideological and economic rivalry as well as confrontation between regional roles (geopolitics).

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