Page 12 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

P.M.Ignatiev, P.V.Bovsunivskyi: Turkey and Iran: political rivalry and economic cooperation
through the ages

Astana and Awaza. Turkish sea resorts with «all-inclusive» hotels also hosted millions

of tourists from Post-Soviet states and local companies were engaged in «shuttle»

trade with the former republics of the Soviet Union. The Turkish export commodities

were textile, leather, golden jewellery and foodstuffs. Tehran was only able to

improve relations with empoverhised mountionous Tajikistan due to language affinity

and with Armenia by providing the isolated country with transport corridors towards

the Gulf and satisfying her energy needs [12].

The competition in the Caucasus expressed itself in the fact that both countries

took diferrent sides in Armenia - Azerbaijan conflict. In this respect it should be

noted that there are several factors that define complicated relations of Tehran and

Baku: 1) President Ilham Aliyev invites Western corporations to exploit natural

resources of Caspian Sea, parts of which are adjacent to North-Western Iran; 2)

Azerbajian has a secular and Western-oriented regime with many liberties for the

local population; 3) several years ago Azerbajian and Israel became close partners in

military field and Jewish state even constructed several military factories in Azeri

land. On the other hand, Turkey considered President Ilham Aliyev a time-tested

ally and contributed heavely to the economy of Azerbajian. For example, 36 per cent

of foreign companies investments in this country are of Turkish origin and more

than 2000 Turkish companies operate here [13].

Using close relations with Azerbajian, Turkey makes all efforts to become an

energy bridge between energy resources of Caspian Sea and European consumers.

The 1,768-km long Baku –Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline from the Azeri −Chirag

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