{"id":37018,"date":"2011-07-03T03:18:39","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T00:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=37018"},"modified":"2014-01-06T10:00:21","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T08:00:21","slug":"turkey-and-iran-vie-for-control-of-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/07\/03\/turkey-and-iran-vie-for-control-of-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey and Iran Vie for Control of Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

By WLADIMIR van WILGENBURG<\/p>\n

\"Iran's
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish Prime Minister Receb Tayyib Erdogan. Photo AFP.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan — A recent report by the United States Institute of Peace suggests that Washington should be less concerned about increased cooperation between Turkey and Iran because the two countries have different visions for the Middle East, suggesting that the \u201crenewal of the historical Ottoman-Persian rivalry in Mesopotamia is likely as the dominant American presence fades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US is scheduled to withdraw all of its forces in Iraq in December 2011. Some observers believe that this will open the door for neighboring countries to influence Iraqi politics.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Iran and Turkey are] rapidly becoming the most influential external actors inside the country as the U.S. troop withdrawal proceeds,\u201d United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Iraq program officer Sean Kane wrote in his report \u201cThe Coming Turkish-Iranian Competition in Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the sixteenth century until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Iraqi history was largely determined by the ebb and flow of conflict between Ottoman Turks and the Safavid Persians,\u201d Kane wrote.<\/p>\n

The US withdrawal could result in the resumption of the competition between Iran and Turkey, the heirs of the Ottoman and Persian empires.<\/p>\n

Iraqi Kurdish officials share this view and are anxious about the historical rivalry between Iran and Turkey. In 2010, Iraq\u2019s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, identified Iran and Turkey as \u201cthe biggest players and rivals in Iraq\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen in August 2010, Iran opened a trade center in the Kurdish city of Sulaimani, its first such outpost, Iran\u2019s deputy minister of commerce, complained that Turkey, which he described as \u2018Iran\u2019s rival in that country,\u2019 had already opened twelve such centers,\u201d Kane wrote.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Iran has been concerned with the high-profile visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Erbil in April. Erbil\u2019s Governor Nawzad Hadi told Rudaw that Iran was not very happy when the Turkish prime minister visited Kurdistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey and Iran compete in Kurdistan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Joost Hiltermann, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Program Director for the International Crisis Group told Reuters that opening the Turkish consulate in Basra in October 2009 was meant to curb Iranian influence in Iraq through investments and trade.<\/p>\n

Kane suggests that Turkey should use its \u201csuccessful\u201d outreach such as Erdogan\u2019s visit and Turkey\u2019s economic relations with the Kurdistan region to improve its relations with Shiite parties in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cA similar strategic outreach to Shiite parties based on economic integration and Ankara\u2019s and Baghdad\u2019s common interest in a stable and strong Iraq could have similar mutual benefits,\u201d Kane wrote.<\/p>\n

While Turkey supported the secular Iraqiya list, an alliance of Arab nationalists and Turkmen in the March 2010 Iraqi elections, Iran supported a Shiite-dominated coalition to prevent Sunnis from taking power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran and Turkey therefore tend to work at cross purposes in Iraqi politics, as seen in the protracted power struggle surrounding Iraq\u2019s 2010 election cycle,\u201d Kane wrote.<\/p>\n

The US is concerned about the continuing Iranian influence in Iraq. On June 15, American soldiers were killed by suspected Iran-backed groups in Iraq, which marked the highest casualties for the American troops in two years.<\/p>\n

Major General Jeffrey Buchanan, chief spokesman for the US military in Iraq, told the Washington Post that the biggest threat to US troops comes from some Iran-backed Shiite groups in Iraq.<\/p>\n

And as the deadline for the US troop withdrawal approaches, Iran is increasingly pushing the Iraqi authorities not to extend the presence of US forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is now pushing strongly, most notably through the Sadrist (Movement) and its leader Muqtada al Sadr\u2026 to prevent any request by the Iraqi government for a continued U.S. troop presence after 2011,\u201d Kane wrote.<\/p>\n

Kane concluded that the Turkish \u201cblend of Islam, democracy, and soft power is a far more attractive regional template than the Iranian narrative of Islamic theocracy and hard power resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States should therefore continue to welcome increased Turkish-Iraqi economic, trade, and energy ties and where possible support their development as a key part of its post-2011 strategy for Iraq and the region,\u201d Kane writes.<\/p>\n

via Rudaw in English….The Happening: Latest News and Multimedia about Kurdistan, Iraq and the World – Turkey and Iran Vie for Control of Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WLADIMIR van WILGENBURG ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan — A recent report by the United States Institute of Peace suggests that Washington should be less concerned about increased cooperation between Turkey and Iran because the two countries have different visions for the Middle East, suggesting that the \u201crenewal of the historical Ottoman-Persian rivalry in Mesopotamia is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":37020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,43],"tags":[2340,5250],"class_list":["post-37018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_","category-iraq","tag-ahmadinejad","tag-erbil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}