One of the reasons Turkey has progress in the airforce in terms of technological development (I won't speak about serial production) is part in due to their connections with advanced aerospace companies in Europe and North America. If you have stable suppliers that can provide what you need at a good price with good availability, this is not a bad thing.
One of the reasons the progress in Iran is slower, is because many things have to be done internal which can add many years to the development process. Cooperation is not a bad thing, and if a realistic country like Russia or China is willing and able to cooperate with Iran in the air sector, it would help alot. The problem is in the past, their was never anyone reliable, and the one time we tried to build a fighter with Russia, they cancelled and left after the US put pressure on them. This was more than 15 years ago;