Beating up the Turks
Iran — with Russia’s help — is evidently trying to punish Turkey for its support for the pro-democracy movement in Syria.
When the Syrian uprising started in 2011, Iran and Turkey contemplated working together to contain the crisis — but it soon became clear that the two were pulling in opposite directions.
Tempted by neo-Ottoman dreams and under growing pressure from Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Arab states, Turkey began to back regime change in Syria.
Iran, facing internal divisions on how to react to the Arab Spring, at first couldn’t find a coherent Syria policy. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seemed amenable to having Bashar al-Assad step aside in exchange for his Ba’ath Party sharing power in a transitional period.
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