Different Foreign Policy Attitudes between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey in the Middle East Regional Subsystem: 2002-2012

The international system and their respective domestic systems have made the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey adopt different attitudes towards the international system, leading to totally different foreign policies being pursued by the two states. In this article, the authors ask the following question: what influential factors have led the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey to adopt different foreign policy attitudes in the Middle East subsystem? The tentative answer is that domestic conditions in Iran and Turkey as well as the structure of the international system and Middle East regional subsystem have resulted in the adoption of different foreign policy attitudes by these two Middle Eastern states. The findings of the research would prove the hypothesis that difference in the Iranian and Turkish foreign policy attitudes in the Middle East regional subsystem has been caused by the aforementioned factors.