Ankara and Tehran in Russia's 'Near abroad'

the way to Central Asia

Resumo

This paper aims to contribute to increase knowledge
about a remote region of the world, but of utmost
importance in the geopolitical context of today - Central
Asia - as a result of its strategic position as a link between
East and West, a space of competition and reinforcement
of the great powers. Besides, the region has been, in
recent years, attracting the attention of foreign investors
due to the existence of large reserves of oil and gas. The
central argument is that Iran and Turkey demonstrate a
predominantly economic interest (the search for energy
resources) towards the region, pursuing fundamentally
realistic-driven policies with regard to it. Alternatively to the participant and non-participant observation,
we resorted to the semi structured interview. The field
research was done through interviews conducted
predominantly in Central Asia. Convinced that the
behaviour of the states is not likely to translate into
tangible realities or mathematical formulas, we assume
that the use of the qualitative method, through the
hermeneutic analysis, is the methodology supporting this
investigation. We suggest that Iran inspires itself on the
Chinese policy towards Central Asia, which has shown
remarkable vigour in recent years in order to to project its
power in the regional sphere and to mitigate the effects
of Washington’s (essentially) isolationist policy about it.
Besides, we believe that an axis Ankara-Tehran-Central
Asia-Beijing can provide extraordinary opportunities
to Turkey, of course, if it knows how to use a skillful
diplomacy to maximize its interests without hurting the
alliance with Washington.