Die Spannungen der Türkei und der Iran werden fortgesetzt

>The surprise fall of Iran’s close regional ally Bashar al-Assad has dealt a huge blow to Tehran’s so called axis of resistance running through Iraq onto Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran’s loss is Turkey’s gain and Tehran is increasingly worried about rising Turkish influence, says Hamidreza Azizi.

Iran’s beef with Turkey runs way deeper than its issues with Israel ever did. The whole anti-Israel stance? That’s mostly just the Mullahs putting on a show to score points with Sunni Muslims – pure political theater taken to the extreme. Think about it – way back, an Iranian dynasty actually forced their whole population to switch from Sunni to Shia Islam just to stand apart from Ottoman Turkey. That’s how serious this rivalry is. And it’s still playing out today – Turkey naturally sides with Iran’s Azerbaijani minority, who are Turkic people and make up a big chunk of Iran’s population. So Turkey isn’t just an old enemy, it’s also got real influence over some of Iran’s own people, which has got to keep Tehran up at night.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​