Turkey and Iran are natural allies. This stems from a lot of Iraninan people of Turkish descent and vice versa. I can only hope we also make good relations with these two countries better.
Someone brought up the OIC. IMHO, this unwieldy gig reflects nothing more than Arabist sentimentality in the wake of the 1967 humiliation. Granted, I have little indepth knowledge about it so I am willing to be educated here.
In my mind, the OIC gives the appearance of "Ummah" without any tangible benefit of one.
But leaving OIC aside, and as a Christian Chinese Canadian (how'd you like the "CCC"?), far be it from me to second-guess what the "Ummah"'s hearts desire.
But nevertheless, I have started to wonder whether the key to a new "Great Game" in central Asia, if not across the wider Muslim world, is a new "CENTO". Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, this dawned on me when I began pondering whether there was a "method" to Mr. Erdogan's rhetorical "madness" in the wake of Xinjiang unrest in July.
A part of me was obviously turned off by a perceived intemperance. However, another part of me - particularly after some
research, came to a different conclusion. And we'll see if it will stand the test of time ... There is no sense in me veering off topic - so excuse me for not discussing this any further.
And the topic is Turkey's "strategic depth", which in an idealized version, would (IMO) distill into one word - "Khorasan". Turkey may have to mend its ways with Syria and other Arab states, now that Northern Kurdistan is all but a Balkanized
fait accompli happily butting against Turkey's soft belly in this thing called "Iraq".
However, the game with Iran has to be a little bigger than just to strike an alliance to keep the Kurdish thing from getting completely our of hand, if you will.
The game is to "
transcend" it.
If I have to personally distill a list of the Muslim nations down to those of "consequence" today and likely into tomorrow, I have just three:
Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan (W-->E geographically)
The
truth on the reality of Turkey's "strategic depth" today is that it can't even reach Azerbaijan with an outstretched arm, let alone the Turanian Central Asia, which mother Russia graciously released from her 70 yrs of "foster care" in the 1990s.
Geographically, the only way for Turkey to reach across with any degree of meaning is through Iran. There is simply not a second route over land.