997: Turkey Rising in the Great Game Revived. Blaise Misztal, @BlaiseMisztal; and Malcolm Hoenlein, @conf_of_pres,
Image: The Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (right) with Reza Pahlavi I, the Shah of Iran (left) in Ankara, 1934 Blaise Misztal, @BlaiseMisztal; and Malcolm Hoenlein, @conf_of_pres, Conference of Presidents, in re: Turkey & Iran: Turkey Rising in the Great Game Revived. Turkey’s incursion into the Nagorno-Karabakh war—the fourth or fifth conflict in which it’s intervened; been involved in Syria, Libya, against the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq; a lot of Turkish aggression, which Erdogan always portrays as a fight against western imperialism/colonialism. Currently is fighting against Russian-backed forces in many places. Geopolitical actors. Biden has called Erdogan an autocrat. This is the Great Game of the nineteenth century. Turkey, Iran, Saudis: all competing in Western and Eastern Africa; growing ever more far-flung. . . . Everything the US asks Iran to do will be costly. Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. His research interests include Iran and its nuclear program, U.S.-Turkey relations, countering extremism, and strategic competition. https://jinsa.org/negotiations-cannot-solve-americas-iranian-nuclear-troubles/