Turkish-Iranian Rivalry in the Middle East

This study entitled The Turkish-Iranian rivalry in the Middle East aimed to investigatethe political transformations in the region which led to increasing this competition and its relevance tothe political, military and geopolitical importance of the region. The study consideredtheprojects and the roles of Turkey and Iran and its impact on the Middle East,so that itbegan from the hypothesis that the existence of two ideologically different forces thathave a somewhat similar capabilities enable bothto compete in the region,and from another hypothesis that this competition adversely affectsthe region byweakened the loyalties of some ideological movements to their countriesand proved to have new ideologies. The validity of these two hypotheses has been proven.Aresearch constraintisthe presence of a lack of clarity to understand the nature of the relationship between Turkey and Iran in the region and what are the foundations and pillarsof this relationship. The study answered number of questions raised in terms of the nature of the relationship and what are the determinants and reasons that created this competition between the two countriesusing the decision-making approach in explaining the nature of the political circumstances surrounding the decision-making environment in both countries and the analytical descriptive approach in clarifying and explaining the nature of this relationship which led to the dimensionsof this competition. It also used the game theory to showthe factorsof strength and weaknessbetween Iran and Turkey and the theory of realism in determining the behavior of the state interms of power and interest for each of the two countries.Anumber of recommendations and resultshave emergedfrom this study