IRANIAN-TURKMEN RELATIONS IN AN ERA OF CHANGE

Abstract

In the fifteen years that have passed since the U.S.S.R. collapsed, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) has gained sufficiently diversified experience in bilateral relations with the newly in-dependent states that formed in the place of the former Union republics. One of the primary things to be noted about the IRI’s relations with the Central Asian states is the fact that Iran was one of the first countries to recognize their independence and establish equal relations with them. Over the past fifteen years, every version of interstate relations has acquired its own specifics and its own set of particular stratifications and ad hoc characteristics in the Central Asian expanse, which are interfering with the progressive development of a dialog. In this context, Iranian-Turkmen relations can quite rightly be called the most stable and dynamic. Throughout the fifteen years of their existence, they have proven the strength of the potential invested in them. This gave reason for deceased President Saparmurat Niyazov to say the following in 2003 in his famous speech How Difficult It Is to Build a State: “We have fraternal relations with the Iranian people, devoid of mutual suspicion.” This description very adequately reflects the current reality of the Central Asian region. Iranian-Turkmen relations have almost no features that irritate either participant in the dialog, and restraining counterbalances are kept to the minimum. This makes the problematic aspects of the IRI’s interrelations with other countries of this region stand out in sharp relief. For example, Iran’s relations with Kazakhstan are aggravated by Astana’s desire to focus priority attention on the pro-Western and pro-Russian vectors of its foreign policy. Recently, a pro-Chinese bent has become increasingly crystallized in its predilections. The hypertrophied fear that bilateral relations might be used as a channel to export the ideas of Islamic fundamentalism is taking its toll on Tashkent’s relations with Tehran. Iran’s negative emotions about Dushanbe’s extensive military cooperation with the West and Russia are being sloughed off on cooperation with Tajikistan, which is presented by the Iranian mass media as the sincerest in terms of ethnic communality.
her same motive is complicating relations with Kyrgyzstan, which, however, have been acquiring obvious dynamism recently, this being explained by Bishkek’s desire to reduce military cooperation with the U.S. to the minimum. As for Turkmenistan’s interrelations with the IRI, they are being built exclusively on the basis of the economic expediency that is increasingly affirmed in the world today and with almost complete dis-regard for the political discrepancies that arise from time to time.