ESFAHAN, Iran — Turkey and Iran, and their predecessor states, have not engaged in war or violated each other’s borders since the 1639 Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin signed between the Safavid and Ottoman Empires.
Every now and then, and especially when Turkey’s secular parties have been in power, the two nations have had differing views on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or the Islamist groups in Turkey. However, these tensions have always subsided quickly. When the Islamists came into power, there appeared to be a warming of political ties. For instance, the $23 billion gas pipeline deal between Tehran and Ankara is the legacy of former Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan (1996-97), who was an Islamist. Indeed, with the coming to power of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party in 2002, bilateral relations soared to an unprecedented level. However, once the crisis in Syria emerged in March 2011, things took a turn for the worse.
