Turkey‐Iran relations, 1997 to 2000: The Kurdish and Islamist questions

This article focuses on the bilateral relations between Turkey and Iran from 1997 to 10 June 2000, terminating with the ECO conference held in Tehran. The omni-balancing international relations theory of Steven David is used to explain Turkey's relations with Iran. Six major developments which are influenced by the Kurdish and Islamist questions are used to emphasise significant aspects of the two countries' relations: 1) the 'Tale of the Two Mayors', which refers to how the cases of the Mayor of Istanbul, Receb Tayyib Erdo < an, and the Mayor of Tehran, Golam Hossein Karbaschi, were covered in the press; 2) the Kavakç L affair, which refers to the issue of Merve Kavakç L , the female member of the Turkish parliament who raised a political firestorm by wearing a headscarf (türban) into the Turkish parliament building in April 1999; 3) the July 'student' demonstrations in Iran, particularly in Tehran; 4) the Turkish bombing raid of 17 July 1999; 5) the Hizbullah affair in Turkey; and 6) the arrest of the killers in May 2000, with alleged ties to Iran, of prominent Turks. I suggest that none of the above had a stormy impact on the wider geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic interests of the two countries, especially in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iraq and the eastern Mediterranean. I confirm that the omni-balancing international relations theory is an adequate model to explain the bilateral relations between the two countries.