With a mission defined by the scope of Christ’s Gospel, Frontier Alliance International (FAI) operates throughout the Middle East to deliver food and medical aid to those in war-ravaged areas. A special Frontier Alliance International report, “The Goat and the Ram,” explores the complex relationship between Turkey and Iran.

Ancient rivals, both militarily and as centers of learning, the two civilizations of Persia and Anatolia became uneasy allies In the 1920s. As the Ottoman Empire was partitioned off, a nationalist-led Turkish War of Independence helped broaden the boundaries back to their old demarcations. The Iranian monarch and Turkish president proved secular and moderate and signed a “Treaty of Friendship” in 1926 that extended through the 1970s.

All this changed in 1979 when Iranian Shi’a students and clerics led a coup d’etat that transformed a secular monarchy into the Islamic Republic. The event led to a radicalized society, and proxy armies spread militant Shi’a Islam throughout the Middle East and equipped them with weaponry and support of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi factions following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. It also included an alliance between Iran and Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria.

By contrast, Turkey maintained its status as a secular democracy with strong ties with Europe throughout this time. That said, it has not been inactive militarily and sponsored Syrian Civil War rebels, which placed it at odds with Iran. A Kurdish militia presence in northern Syria provided a pretext for Turkey to invade Syrian Kurdistan several times from 2016 to 2019.

With Turkey constructing military outposts in Syria and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps maintaining extensive weapons supply networks in the Golan Heights, the chances of direct military confrontation between the two countries are escalating. For the time being, cooperation between Iran and Turkey, bolstered by a shared “disdain for the West,” remains high, but a powder keg lies hidden beneath this.